Reflections of the Past, Illusions of the Future
by SpeakerofNaught
Summary: Apart, they represent everything lost to the ravages of time. Together, they signify an eternal bond that time can neither touch nor taint. Only when they lose everything, can they find the path to true happiness. NaruHina. M for language and more.
1. Prologue 1

Authors Notes; Hey, This is my first attempt at a fanfic. This particular chapter is the prologue. I rushed through the beginning of it so I could get to the main story. I'm also making this up as I go, but I do have a overall plan in mind. Another thing I'd like to point out is that I'm improving. Even I can tell that I am, and I'm usually one of those "I'm not doing good enough" people. If your picky about grammar, then please read the first paragraph in my profile. And remember, this is only part 1 of the prologue.

(Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any related characters, locations, or concepts. I do own this particular story line... I think.)

Prologue

Part 1

Naruto ran towards the Hokage Tower in a valiant effort to try to get to his appointment on time. He was making excellent time, but it wasn't good enough. Earlier that morning, Sakura had showed up at his door at an hour that Naruto had long since labeled as forbidden. She had told him that he was to report to Tsunade for a important mission and warned him not to be late, then left without another word. Punctuality and loyalty were the only form of personality she showed ever since Sasuke died.

Itachi had attacked Naruto in a last ditch attempt to extract Kyuubi from Naruto, but before any blows could be dealt, Sasuke appeared and activated his curse-mark. Sasuke was no match for Itachi by himself, but when Naruto joined in the fight to help, Sasuke attacked him too. After much collateral damage was dealt to the surrounding landscape, Itachi incapacitated Sasuke and was about to kill him, when Naruto stuck a Rasengan between his shoulder-blades. This succeeded in both killing Itachi and pissing Sasuke off to the extreme. With his life purpose taken away from him, Sasuke poured his entire chakra reserves into a final attack. The attack killed him and pushed Naruto to the brink of death, but the Kyuubi pulled Naruto back from deaths grip.

Sakura never blamed Naruto for Sasuke's death, she blamed herself. She truly became a reflection of the Tsunade from the past, complete with the alcoholic tendencies. Sakura was a underage drunk, and Sasuke had been a psychopathic avenger. Naruto was the only one of the three to keep his sanity completely intact, and he was the one that contained the Great Fox Demon. Even with the demon sealed inside him, Naruto had gained a great amount of respect among Konaha. There was even a rumor that Naruto was next in line for Hokage, even at the ripe-old-age of seventeen.

That fact was not hard to believe when you factor in that the remaining Rookie Nine plus Gai's Team were all listed from A-S rank Nin's in Bingo-Books across the continent. Ten-Ten, Kiba, and Shino formed a jounin team and still performed the missions that their handed. Ino is Ibiki's new apprentice in the art of interrogation, and is involved in a serious relationship with Chouji who took on a genin team of his own. Shikamaru now helps Iruka with the academy classes and training to become a teacher himself. Rock Lee's a ANBU Captain, the odd thing is he has somehow kept his record clean by not killing a single person in any of his missions, even one successful assassination mission... ANBU Capitan's not killing?

Hinata formally renounced her claim as Heir to the Hyuga Clan, passing it on to Neji, and then her name as a Hyuga. Normally when a Hyuga leaves the Clan, they must have a Hyuga Clan Seal placed upon them. But over the years, Hinata had grown into a daughter figure in Tsunade's eye's, which meant that a law was immediately passed to forbid the cruel seal to be placed on anyone else, coincidentally, this law was passed just before Hinata's request form for renouncing her family name came to Tsunade's attention. Naruto doesn't know this, but Tsunade has been trying to push Naruto and Hinata together for the last two years. He still remains oblivious

Hinata now lives happily in a small apartment not to far from Naruto's. She makes a living by being a part-time assistant along with Shikamaru and attends missions with various teams among the Leaf. Sakura became Tsunade's personal assistant after Iruka tried to court Shizune, and succeeded. She was now the faithful left hand of the Hokage, while Naruto was the all-powerful right hand.

"Gotta hurry or the Hags gonna blow her top off." Naruto said out of habit while echoing his thoughts, while running from rooftop to rooftop.

"**Well, maybe if you didn't spend all morning in that God-forsaken noodle shop, you wouldn't be in a such a rush, now would you?"** barked Kyuubi asked from somewhere inside Naruto's consciousness.

Naruto and the fox had struck up a deal a little over a year ago. Naruto gets free rule over the fox's chakra up until 6 tails, in return, the fox gets access to Naruto's thoughts, feeling, and senses. This gives the fox a sense of freedom it will never achieve. Another perk is that now Naruto has a 9500 year old demon fox living inside his head. This can be seen as both a advantage or a disadvantage. The advantage is that the fox always likes to point out the obvious, this is helpful because Naruto usually tends to miss the obvious. The disadvantage is that now Naruto has a 9500 year old fox inside his head and it likes to use sarcasm...A lot.

(AN: Sorry guys, I'm really lazy and can't (don't wanna put forth the effort) think of a good reason for the Kyuubi to talk. Don't judge me, you guy's did it too! And if you haven't written a story yet, don't complain. It's hard. To all of those who have thought of a good reason, I've most likely read your story and don't wanna take your idea. Good Job!!!)

"Well, I never know when I'm going to die, so I have to treat every meal like it's my last." he said with a happy smile that was a little to creepy to follow the dark sentence he just said and though at the same time.

"**If your gonna eat unsurmountable amounts of food right before an appointment, then don't complain to me when you run late!"**

"What do you mean by that? You use way to many big words when you talk, it's not very fun when I'm the only one that can hear you and still not understand you." asked a confused Naruto.

"**It means very big, idiot. And if you don't stop speaking out loud, their going to commit you to an insane asylum."** insisted Kyuubi as Naruto entered the Hokage tower.

"_Heh-Heh_, _Sorry." chuckled_ Naruto in his mind.

_vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv_

Tsunade was having a very bad day. She was down to a forth of a bottle of sake, she was starting to suspect Sakura was becoming suicidal, her best assassin, Anko, was pregnant and retiring from being a shinobi, the Hyuga's won't stop insisting the Hyuga-Clan Seal be placed upon Hinata, Naruto was late for his meeting, and there's a definite increase in Orochimaru's activity. Plus, the stack of paperwork was building and it was nearing her birthday. Thankfully Shizune was on her honeymoon and didn't tell anyone about her getting another year older.

Tsunade looked across her office at the shy girl staring back at her. "So Hinata," she asked "I've been meaning to check-up on you. How've you been over last couple days?"

"I've been fine," she said cheerfully. She'd nearly grown out of her stuttering and nervous fidgeting, she was also gaining confidence now that she was away from her clan. "I painted the new apartment you found for me and now I'm working on..."

**BAM**

"Sorry Obaa-chan," yelled Naruto as he busted through the door. "I tried to get here but..."

"Shut-up Naruto and sit down, were in a hurry." Tsunade shouted as Naruto took his seat next to Hinata. "Now, I've gotten a report from Lee's ANBU team. They've found one of Orochimaru's testing labs but were unable to gain entry." she said while holding up a folder. "The problem is that I've lost the page with the exact coordinates to the lab. I'm going to send you two in to find it, and possibly, info on other labs Orochimaru might have established."

"Wh-who i-is the oth-other member o-of the team?" stuttered Hinata. She has NEARLY gotten over the stuttering and nervous fidgeting. The exception's Naruto.

"That's what I was getting at, I've noticed that both you and Naruto have very different fighting styles than most of your peer's. I'm using this mission as a test run to find out how 'compatible' you two are together." she said with a stealthy wink to Hinata. This made Hinata blush.

"Compatible?" asked Naruto.

"Yes, since Hinata's attacks are mainly defensive and Naruto's are mainly offensive," she said while switching her glance between the two "both of you threw each of your previous teams horribly off balance."

"What?!" yelled a outraged Naruto "Team Seven was one of the best genin teams ever formed! We each ended up being the apprentice of a Sannin!"

"**The only reason you and your pack did so well, is because you always had me to fall back on."** added Kyuubi.

"_Shut-up fur-ball, we were good and you know it!" _retorted Naruto

"Actually," stated Tsunade "statistics show that Team Seven was one of the worst genin teams ever formed. Aside from D-rank, Team Seven only completed one mission before breaking up.(filler episodes and movies don't count)" Tsunade said with a deviant smile. She knew that would piss him off to the brink.

He was silent for a moment. "Well, we only got one mission done..." but he stopped. "If it was anyone else, they would've been killed." he said quietly.

"I heard about that. Anyway," started Tsunade again "I decided to place you on a two-man cell. Even though your fighting styles are completely different, they complement each other unbelievably well. Since your both ranked at least A-class, that should make up for the third person."

"That's fine with me, how 'bout you Hinata?" asked Naruto as he looked at Hinata.

"I d-don't min-mind." she stuttered out, still blushing from Tsunade's earlier comment's.

"Good then, it's settled. Naruto," said Tsunade as she held out a envelope. "I need to talk to Hinata for a second, will you take this out to Rock Lee and tell him 'thanks' for me?" she normally wouldn't have asked, but she needed him to leave with as little complaining as possible.

"Fine, when do you want us to leave?" he asked.

"Meet at the eastern gate in one hour, you leave as soon as possible." she said as he left. She then turned to Hinata with a big smile. "Well, what'cha think?"

"Thank you Hokage-sam..." she started but was interrupted by Tsunade hitting her forehead with a paper clip.

"Hinata, talk to me like I'm a friend, Okay?" asked Tsunade in a caring voice.

Hinata smiled then slowly walked over to Tsunade and gave her a gentle hug. Then whispered "Thank you, but what did you need to talk about?"

Tsunade pulled out of the hug and motioned for Hinata to sit back down "Hinata, I've been planning on putting you two on a team for a while, but I now have the perfect reason."

"What?"

"I put you together and on a relatively easy mission because I want you tell tell him how you feel as soon as the mission's deemed complete."

"Wh-Why?" asked Hinata with a darkening red face.

"Because, while you two are gone, I'm naming Naruto my official successor in becoming Hokage." Tsunade smiled at Hinata waiting for her to grasp the concept. "Of course he'll only be my successor. He won't become Hokage until I either die or retire, which hopefully won't be for some time."

Hinata couldn't have been prouder of Naruto than at this point. He had finally realized his dream. "But, why must I tell him now?" she was very worried that he might reject her.

"Naruto is very easily won over." Tsunade stated almost like she was reading the shy girls mind. "He's been alone all his life, and is very open to the concept of a relationship of any kind. If you tell him, he won't turn you down."

"But why now?" said Hinata, not understanding.

"I want you to tell him now because your the only one who feels this way toward him." Hinata was a very bright girl, but Tsunade was starting to get aggravated at her. "Sarutobi-sensei was single when he was announced to be the Third Hokage. The announcement was made at noon. By three o'clock, Sarutobi-sensei had been offered thirty-seven arranged-marriage offers."

Hinata gasped _"If Naruto-kun get announced Hokage and doesn't know about my feelings, then every woman in the village will be after him and he'll get married to someone who doesn't love him."_

Tsunade just looked out the window upon Konaha. "I guess you've finally grasped what I'm saying. If you don't tell him now, he'll end up getting married off to some rich, spoiled, bitch."

_vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv_

Naruto was running to his apartment after he delivered the letter to Lee. "_Finally, I get to show everyone how strong I'm getting."_ Thought Naruto as he reached his apartment building.

"**Puhff, you say that every time you go out on one of these pointless missions. Then you get disappointed when all you find are helpless humans holding up their wimpy weapons in protest of you killing them. If you really want a challenge, you should go after the Snake Human with your bare-hands."** suggested the demon. Kyuubi thought it would be a nice change of pace, especially since the Uchiha Brat died. Naruto hasn't had a decent challenge since.

"_Hmm, as fun as that would be, I think I'll pass."_ thought Naruto. He wasn't as deluded as he used to be, and finally recognized just how powerful the Sannin really were.

"**As much as it pains me to say it, I think that would be the wisest choice."** it said in an all-knowing voice.

"_Wow, is the Great Demon King saying that I'm right?"_ he responded in a sarcastic tone as he threw some boxers into his travel bag.

"**No, I'm saying that even though your strong for a human, your still not strong enough to take on that Snake. I'm also telling you to save your strength, and that something big is about to happen."**

"_Big? How big?"_

"**I'm not entirely sure, but the time-line's been fluctuating at a unnerving rate."**

"_Wait, what do you mean by fluctuating? You mean that someone's traveling through time? I thought that was impossible."_

"**Not quite traveling, It's more like certain things are being taken out of the time-line. They dwell in purgatory for a while, and then they just reappear."**

"_Do you think it's Orochimaru, with one of his immortality schemes?"_ asked the blond after he checked his bag for anything he might have missed.

"**Can't say just yet, just keep me safe and I'll be happy."**

"_I'll keep you safe if you keep me and my team safe."_ negotiated Naruto.

"**Fine."** was it's only response.

After he had packed up everything he thought he'd need for the upcoming trip, he locked up his little home and proceeded to the Eastern Gate.

_vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv_

Hinata and Naruto ran at full-speed from treetop-to-treetop, as they headed to their mission objective. They had left Konaha eight hours ago and were almost there, when they decided to stop and make camp.

They both sat down next to the fire, staring off in different directions. After several minutes of awkward silence, Naruto decided to break the ice "So," started Naruto, after they both ate the skewered rabbit they had cooked "tell me how you've been over the last couple of months."

"F-fine," she sputtered out while poking her fingers together "I t-talked to Neji se-several day's ago. H-he's really h-happy being the Cl-clan heir." She really didn't like to talk about herself.

"Oh," said Naruto while snapping his fingers as he remembered "Neji's the new heir. I forgot."

"Y-yes, the El-Elders believe he'll b-be very p-powerful in the fu-future."

"Wait," Naruto had another spurt of knowledge "I thought you were the heir. Wasn't it your dream to run the Clan?"

"No," she said firmly, but still gently, suddenly lost in thought "my d-dream is to be noticed by so-someone. S-soon I will know if th-that dream's achievable or n-not."

"Of course it's achievable!" he stated firmly "Believe me, I know it's hard. I know what it's like to scream and scream, but even if they look at you...they never see you." he said with a crestfallen look. "But you can't give up. You've got friends that support you, and your really nice, and pretty, and smart, and..."

But thats all Hinata heard. "_He thinks I'm pretty!_" she thought "_There's still a chance."_

Oblivious to the intense blush covering Hinata's face, he continued his speech "...so if you ever need any help, I'll travel to the seventh level of Hell and back to make sure your dream's come true."

"Th-thank you, Naruto-kun." she whispered through her blush. "B-but I wouldn't w-want you t-to have to go that f-far." she was flattered that he would even claim to go that far.

"Nonsense, I know I always say my dream is to become Hokage, but my real dreams more like an ambition or a desire. I want to help and protect those precious to me, regardless of the sacrifice." he said with pride "Being Hokage's just the position best suited for that ambition. Plus, I get to be HOKAGE!" he threw his hands in the air for emphasis. "Who wouldn't want to be that?"

Hinata giggled "I'm s-sure you w-will get i-it soon." she encouraged, knowing full well he would.

"So, how 'bout you? When do you think you'll get this person to notice you?" Naruto asked still completely clueless.

"As s-soon as I f-find enough c-courage." she said while looking down at her feet.

"How will you know when you have enough courage?" he asked in a sage-like voice.

"I... I don't kn-know." Hinata's mind and heart was running faster than she thought possible. Should she tell him now or later? It wasn't until she heard what he said next that forced her to make up her mind.

Naruto looked at Hinata with a calculating gaze "Well, you'll never know until you try. Jiji once told me 'The best measure of courage is the fear that is overcome' (it was really Norman F. Dixon). You'll just keep telling yourself that your not good enough until it's to late." While he was in teacher mode, he had closed his eye's in concentration, and didn't notice Hinata slowly stand up and close the distance between them. "You should just go for it, and---"

Naruto's mind froze as he felt a pair of soft lips encased his own. His eyes opened quickly to be met with the sight of Hinata's closed eyes, nearly touching his. In the brief three seconds the surprise kiss lasted, every memory of Hinata fell into place; the blushing, fainting, the nervous fidgeting, the encouraging words. Everything led to one conclusion. Hinata was in love with Naruto.

This thought scared the shit out of Naruto. He wasn't supposed to be loved. He was the human container of the infamous Kyuubi no Kitsune. Hated by many, and cherished by few. Hinata didn't know any of this. With this single kiss, she had put herself in more danger than she could possibly imagine. Even though Akatski was ruined, Pien was still alive, and he still hungered for revenge. He could be watching right now, use Hinata against him, against the village. He wouldn't put Hinata in danger.

Slowly, Naruto pushed Hinata away only to find more resistance and dead weight than necessary. Hinata then slumped onto his shoulder, she'd fainted.

"_Thanking the God's!"_ thought Naruto as he picked up Hinata and carried her over to where her sleeping bag sat. After he layed her down, he jumped into a nearby tree to keep lookout for the night. He didn't bother waking her up for her shift either, he knew he wouldn't get any sleep anyways.

_vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv_

Around three o'clock in the morning, Naruto had the bright idea of asking the Kyuubi what he should do. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and began to meditate. He had discovered that through meditation, he could travel to his inner world and confront the King of Demon. He had yet to find a reason for anyone to want to do this, until now.

When he opened his eye's, he found himself standing in a dark hallway with no source of lighting, yet he could still see perfectly. Naruto hated this part of talking to the demon face-to-face, he had to find him. Utilizing the saying 'All roads lead to Rome' -even though Rome never existed in this realm- he began to walk through the depressing halls of his inner psyche.

The odd thing about this plane of existence, is that no matter which way you walk, you get to the intended destination. One could start walking with no sense of a destination, and after several moments, they would find the place they didn't know they were trying to reach until after they reached it.

So after Naruto walked around the third corner, he found himself looking at the recurring memory of the hour before the Chunin Exam Finals. _"What? I wanted to talk to Kyuubi!"_ he screamed at his subconscious.

"_I-I think your a p-proud failure."_ Memory Hinata whispered quietly.

As soon as she said that, the world shifted to the Exam Preliminaries. He relived the time when Hinata gave him the healing salve after his fight with Kiba. Then he was reliving the moment that he swore under a blood-oath to avenge Hinata, after she lost to Neji. From there he found himself sitting on a couch celebrating Lee's Inauguration to Jounin Party. Hinata had accidentally grabbed Ino's cup of sake, thinking it was water, and ended up passing out onto Naruto's shoulder.

Though Hinata doesn't remember it, she had whispered many things while on that couch, but like many things that were reveled that night, they were all dismissed as un-creditable, due to everyone's drunken-ness. Back then, none of the things she whispered made sense to him, until now.

"_I guess she really does love me."_ he thought _"but for how long?"_

As if to answer him question, which is probably what it did, his subconscious started showing him different memories of the past; in the academy, she was staring at him as he ogled Sakura, after he failed the genin exam, he could see her face in the crowd, just as dejected as he was. His subconscious showed a memory of him training when in his second academy year. During his training, he would get the feeling he was being watched, but he never would get any negative 'vibes' from the onlooker so he just continued his training.

"_I guess I really am an idiot."_ he thought sadly.

Just then, his visions switched to a very brief memory of Sakura punching Naruto in the head while yelling '_IDIOT_'. It didn't play it once, but in a continuous loop.

'IDIOT'

'IDIOT'

'IDIOT'

'IDIOT'

"_Okay, I get! I'm an idiot and need to tell Hinata something!"_ he yelled into space.

His subconscious then switched to a vision of Kakashi. He wore his annoying little smile behind his annoying little mask and said _"Very good."_ in that annoying little tone that Naruto hated, oh so much.

"_AAAAGGGHHGHHH!!!!"_ yelled Naruto as he found himself walking though the depressing hallways once again.

As he walked, he entered a large room. In this large room, there stood about thirty large iron bars. Behind these iron bars was the grinning face of the Kyuubi. **"So,"** it started **"you finally got a taste of just how annoying you can be."**

"_SHUT UP!"_ was all he yelled, as he continued walking to the next hallway.

_vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv_


	2. Prologue 2

(AN: Let me start off by saying I'm sorry. I meant to put the first section of this chapter, in the last chapter. I'm also sorry about this chapter. There was no happy place for me in this chapter, and there still isn't one.

Another thing is that I want to thank those of you that reviewed my last story; adngo714, Dragon Man 180, gemini's sorrow, BreeSS, Oni244. There was also the anonymous review. You know who you are. Thank you, now on to the story.

(Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, any characters, locations, or concepts)

Naruto awoke in his tree around four o'clock AM. From his current position, he could see Hinata in her sleeping bag. She was apparently having a very good dream and was hugging her pillow tightly. He had to admit "S_he is kinda cute. And the kiss wasn't that bad..."_ He then realized what he was thinking. He had to focus on anything but Hinata. If he didn't, then he might end up putting her in danger along with him.

"**Admit it, your falling for her."** the voice urged.

"_No, I'm not. I'm just not used to people doing things like that to me. It just has me on edge."_

"**No, it has you in denial. I can hear your thoughts. Your exact thoughts were **_She's incredibly hot, and I would love to kiss her, especially down on the-_**_'"_** the demon imitated his voice perfectly.

"_NO THEY WERN'T!!!"_ he mentally screamed _"I know what your about to say,"_ he thought as he switched his thoughts to impersonate the fox **_"'You should listen to me, and do everything I say. And I say you should keep your mind open to the possibilities. And tell her how you feel about putting her in danger, and that's its about time you found a mate, and...'"_**he paused as he somehow felt the fox smile inside of him _"Damn you."_ He had just given himself advice, and could already tell that the fox was gonna take the credit.

"**All I'm saying, is don't turn her down yet. But tell her about the position your in."** it suggested **"Trust me, she's a powerful being, even for a human. She would make a perfect female for you. And just for the record, it was time for you to get a female six years ago."**

"_I'll think about it."_ he thought (AN: That just doesn't sound right to me) as he cut the fox from his mind, to angry to argue any further. He had to admit, even though it certainly wasn't love, she had stirred up some feelings for her that he didn't know he was capable of having._ "Maybe if I just don't think about it, the answer will come to me."_

With a sigh, he looked up at the moon. It was in it's full stage and looked just like Hinata's eyes. Rolling his eye's downward, he tried to focus on something else. As he gazed at the ground, he could see many flowers in full bloom. With the aid of the full moon, he could see that they were all small patches of lavender, which reminded him of Hinata. Closing his eye's, he focused on his other senses. The wind blew lightly, carrying the scent of the flowers below him, reminding him of Hinata.

Breathing through his mouth, he focused on the sounds of the forest. The wind gently rustled the leaves of the trees, cicada's sang their nightly songs, this all was interrupted by Hinata rolling over in her sleep and whispering "Naruto-kun" just loud enough for him to hear. He had realized that he wasn't getting any sleep when he had first sat up in the tree. Now he'd be happy just to make it to morning with his sanity marginally intact.

_vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv_

As the sun was rising over the tree line, Naruto was still contemplating his eventual moment of dread, when he heard the sound of shuffling coming from Hinata's direction. He watched nervously as Hinata slowly climbed to her feet, still half asleep, wonder over to her travel bag, and start digging through it.

After several seconds, she pulled out a small pouch along with a neatly folded pile of clothes and started walking to the small stream nearby, all the while mumbling something about 'washing up'.

Taking a deep breath in relief, thankful that she hadn't remembered what she had done. He knew that it wouldn't be long until she recalled the moment that she had kissed him, and he still hadn't thought of a single response. Thankfully, Naruto always did his best thinking during tight situations.

"**Hey Kit,"** said the fox from inside his head** "I have an idea."**

"_What!?"_ asked Naruto in desperation_ "please tell me!"_ he begged.

"**Tell her about you playing prison guard, and if she-"**

"_NO!"_ he yelled_ "Anything but that!"_ he stated firmly.

"**Wait,"** it urged in good humor. Kyuubi was seriously enjoying this whole 'matchmaking' business. It may be because of his hidden respect for Naruto that he wanted him to be truly happy, or that he found it sad that Naruto was seventeen and without a relationship of any kind. Or because of the fact that he's been trapped inside of a cramped cage for seventeen years, which meant even the idea of watching dust settle on an old table would excited him. Either way, he would certainly enjoy a project of any kind. **"if you tell her about me, and she reacts badly, then you know that it wasn't meant to be. But if she doesn't care, then you can tell her about the dangers you put her in."**

"_Bu... you might be right,"_ said a defeated Naruto_ "I just don't really want to lose anyone else."_

"**You have to tell her anyways, your both teammates and she deserves to know."**

After several seconds he finally replied _"I'll think about it."_

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

"_Hey Kyuubi, where do you think she is?"_ asked Naruto. They had been waiting for fifteen minutes for her to return, but she hasn't come back yet. He didn't understand why she was taking so long, Hinata had always struck him as not being to caught-up in her appearance, even though she still always managed to look pret... Not look bad.

"**I'm not sure."** it replied** "You should probably go look, but tread carefully, if you come across her naked, then you'll probably get beat within an inch of your life. And I don't want to have to heal any closed tenketsu points. Their a bitch to reopen."**

"_Who do think I am? Ero-sennin?"_ yelled Naruto to hide his blush, as he started walking in the direction Hinata went. Kyuubi didn't answer verbally, just with a snicker. After walking for several minutes, he came across the stream she had ventured too. There, sitting on a couch-sized rock, was a fully clothed Hinata. She was sitting with both of her knees pulled to her chest with her arms wrapped around for warmth, and was completely soaked and crying.

_vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv_

As he got nearer, her thoughts started to whirl. _"Does he remember? Does he hate me?" _but what he did was one of the last things she expected him to do.

"Hinata, are you okay!?" he asked as he unzipped his jacket, and draped it over her shoulders. Well, maybe not the last thing she expected.

All she could manage to say was a near inaudible "I-I-I'm f-f-fine." But she wasn't fine. The water was nearly freezing. Even though it was March, and there was no ice left on the ground, the water was flowing in from the north and still borderline freezing.

"Are you sure? It's gotta be forty degree's out here." he could also feel the wind blowing in from the north.

"Y-y-ye-s." she mumbled "I j-just ne-ed to g-get b-back to th-e f-fire." She couldn't be more relieved that he had forgotten about last night, even temperately.

"Okay." was all the warning she had before he scooped her up in his arms. She might have fainted, she might have simply zoned out, but the entire trip back to the fire was one big blur. The only thing she knew the whole time was that she was warm, and in his arms.

When she felt the even greater warmth of the fire, she was immediately drawn to it. He sat her down gently on the log that they had been using as a bench and asked "Do you have any spare clothes?" while digging around in his travel bag.

"N-no." she said sadly, she had taken her only spare set with her to the stream. She was going to try to look as attractive as she could for Naruto, but when she remembered that she had kissed him, she slipped on a rock and dragged her spare clothes in the river with her.

"Okay," he said while digging into his bag further. Then he stood up with a lumpy pile in his arms. "Here you are." he said while handing her a spare set of his clothes. While she looked at the clothes in her arms, Naruto was digging in his bag again.

After several seconds, he stood up and started walking back towards the river. "Wh-where a-are you go-going?" she asked, she hoped she wasn't being too nosy.

He then flashed her his dazzling foxy grin, and said "The river, can't have me stinking up the mission, can I?" she giggled at his joke as best she could while fighting off hypothermia.

In a brief moment of courage, she called out "D-don't fall i-in!" She could hear him laughing as he disappeared between the trees.

When she was sure he was out of seeing range, she stripped from her usual attire, and changed into the spare set of Naruto's clothes. Even though they were several sizes too big, she loved the way they felt, smelled, and reminded her of Naruto. It then dawned on her that when he got back, he would want to talk about last night. The kiss.

This thought had her nervous. Very Nervous. She then reverted back to her earlier thoughts_ "What if he's just acting nice because he doesn't want to hurt my feelings? Naruto is so nice, that's probably what he's doing. Does he hate me? Does he think I'm weird?"_ her thought were interrupted by Tsunade's words coming to mind_ "If you tell him, he won't turn you down." _A fierce look of determination passed through her eyes as she looked towards Naruto direction.

_vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv_

Twenty minutes after he left, Naruto cautiously approached the campsite. He knew he couldn't put off talking to Hinata anymore. They had a mission to complete and needed to leave soon. As he surveyed the camp, he could see Hinata sitting in front of the campfire, hair still damp, and wearing his clothes. She had two small travel bowls sitting next to her and was mixing together some kind of stew for breakfast.

As he walked forward, she looked up at him and every ounce of his courage was scattered to the wind. He didn't know it, but she had the same effect coming from him. But they both kept their faces as calm as they could be while glowing bright red.

"H-Hinata," Naruto started hesitantly "we really need to talk." he said as he sat down several feet from her. Although it was a small distance, it felt like a mile. And both of them still felt like they were too close.

Hinata just nodded her head. She didn't know why, but she was having to fight off the urge to cry.

Seeing that she wasn't going to say anything just made it harder for him. "A-about last night, I-I think that I might h-have misinterpreted what happened." he choked out.

Hinata just shook her head from side to side. Well, to say she shook it would be exaggerating it. A better way of explaining it was that the movements only made her long hair sway slightly. Naruto wouldn't have thought she had moved if it wasn't for that giveaway. "N-n-no," she barely whispered while fighting tears "I-I c-c-care f-for y-y-you, Naruto-kun."

She cared for him? Why would she?"But why?!" he asked. Why anyone would find anything endearing about him was beyond his comprehension.

"J-ju-just b-b-be-because I-I d-do." She whispered, still nearly inaudible. She had realized that there was no turning back now, she was going to tell him one way or another. She was just scared that she would say it wrong and offend him. When she spoke up again, she started talking louder "I-I al-always wa-watched you, ad-admired you fr-from afar." the more she spoke, the louder and more confident she would sound "You w-were st-strong, even though ev-everybody said mean things t-to you. You never g-gave up, and you always gave m-me courage and confidence." Hinata spoke loud enough to hear across the campsite.

As she continued her confession, she had completely caught herself up in the heartfelt speech, and lost most of her insecurities "You gave me strength t-to change myself. When you talked to me before the final Chunin Exam, I-I realized that I didn't just admire you anymore. I fell in love with you. Not just the part that gave me strength, but the part that made you, you. The part that made you, Naruto-kun." she had nearly screamed the last part.

Tears were rolling down her eyes as she finished. Naruto just stared at the ground as he thought about this revelation. "I...I'm sorry." he finally said "But I can't get involved in any relationships right now." Telling her that was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do. But he couldn't risk putting her and Konoha in danger. The fact that he was still considering whether or not to accept her feelings made him feel even more guilty. Was he really that lonely? Would he risk his precious people for his own selfish reasons?

Hinata could feel the cracks forming on her heart. She had just poured her heart and soul into telling him that she loved him, and he just told her 'No'.

"Hinata?" he asked. She looked up to find him smiling a very subtle smile. It was the soft and warm smile he gave, that assured everybody that they could survive anything. "Hinata, don't give up on me." he demanded softly.

"_Don't give up?"_ she thought. _"Why should I still try if he already knows and rejected me?"_

He could see the mixture of confusion and hope in her eye's. "What I'm saying, is that I'm not telling you 'No'. I'm telling you that I can't get involved in a relationship at this time." he said as he watched hope flood into her face "I'm dangerous to be around. Do you remember the story about Pien?" he watched her nod her head shakily. "Well, he's still alive, and he wants me dead." he finished.

"W-why would h-he want you d-dead?" she asked, the stutter coming back.

"I'm the reason his plan to seal all nine Biju failed." he said with a prideful smile. Pien had been planning on trapping all nine Biju inside of a giant living statue, then transferring them all inside of himself. His goal was to combine himself with all nine to overthrow the entire world, and place it under his rule.

(AN: I know this isn't really the true plot, but I don't keep up with the manga, so I couldn't think of another reason. I just really don't care about Sasuke enough to keep reading them, but I have a fairly good idea of who's, who through spoilers I've read on this site.)

"I-I can d-defend myself, Naruto-kun." she said sternly. She may be shy, quite, and passive. But she was not weak. That was one thing that she wouldn't even allow Naruto to tell her.

"Not against this guy, he was the leader of Akatsuki. Orochimaru wouldn't even mess with him."

"I d-don't care." she stated simply.

"But it's not only you I'm worried about, it's all of Konoha!" he explained. She was stubborn.

"Then w-why do you want me to k-deep trying?! Why encourage me i-if your just going to turn me d-down? If this guy is as p-powerful as you say he is, then he'll never be beaten!" she yelled, well, she yelled as loud as Hinata can yell. "Will you ever have any chance to be with someone if he can't be beaten?"

Naruto didn't have a instant response to say to that. She was right. Finally, he settled for an gray area. "I don't care if he dies or lives. I just don't want him to be a threat to anyone, anymore. And then there's Orochimaru and Kabuto. If they get word of a relationship, then they'll target you."

"Those t-two are a threat to e-everybody in K-Konoha. Their everyone's b-business, not just your own." Hinata wasn't giving up. She could see that Naruto was testing the idea of them getting together, and she could see that he liked it. He just didn't want to endanger anyone.

Naruto didn't know this, but before Hinata renounced her name, she had been trained to be Clan Head. This training consisted of a advanced debate class. It was one of the courses in which she excelled at.

"But he has a grudge against me! I killed Sasuke and took the Sharingan away from him!" he argued "I took away his goal, and now he wants me dead!" he yelled.

This yelling was a sign to Hinata. When people get desperate to convince someone else, they start yelling everything... but then again, it was Naruto.

"I a-am ranked as a Cl-Class A Shinobi." Hinata reminded him, but not in a smug way. She said it as if she was truly considering his words, but not seeing any sense in them. And he had to admit, he didn't see much sense in them himself "I'm s-sure that I could hold my own a-against Kabuto, and I even more sure th-that you could at least f-fend Orochimaru off l-long enough for help to arrive."

"_Damn,"_ he thought_ "she's putting up a good argument."_

"**Kit,"** butted in the demon** "give up. She's smarter than you."**

"_Be quite,"_ he snapped_ "this is a private conversation!"_

"Hinata..." Naruto said in sigh "Hinata, listen to me. I'm not sure if I..." deciding not to take that road, he altered his next sentence "I don't want you to get hurt, in any way." he held up his hand when she tried to interrupt him "I know your strong, I trust you with my life. But there are other ways that you could get hurt by me."

"I-I don't u-understand?" she said through barely held tears. How could he tell her that he didn't want her hurt if he was ripping her heart to shreds as he said it.

Checking the position of the sun, Naruto could tell that it was already nearing nine o'clock. He had to wrap this up quickly. They had a mission to complete and it looked like they were already going to have to do it in the afternoon sun.

"Hinata," he said "I can't explain now, but lets finish this mission, and I'll tell you why when we get back to the village. Right now, I need some time to think." It looked like he was going to have to tell her about the Kyuubi soon, and he needed time to sort out his thoughts.

"O-okay, N-N-Naruto-kun." she said faintly as she stood up, still clothed in black and orange. He didn't know why, but hearing her stutter his name hurt worse than seeing one of the Villager's cold stares. In all the time's he's ever spoken to her, she always stuttered everything she said. Everything, but HIS name.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The remaining trip was cast in a sheet of awkward silence. The mood was pushed to the point that Naruto could fell it effecting him physically. It slowed down his reflexes, and hindered his movements. It was suffocating. The two gave the other a wide berth, not once strolling closer than three meters.

After two hours of travel, they arrived at the target location. The reason that this team was sent, was because of the Byakugan. Tsunade told them that the exact location was lost and that they were sent to find it. Without a word said, she activated her dojutsu to search the area.

There, not even fifty meters away, was the entrance into Orochimaru's lab. Again, they were completely silent as they slowly gained entrance into the laboratory after hiding their travel bags. As they made their way down a narrow sandstone hallway, they heard the soft, almost imperceptible footfalls of an approaching enemy.

On instinct, they both darted to the right, into a open door. There had been many identical doors in the hall, but this one had been propped open. From inside the room, they watched as a man of grizzly size walked through the halls. He wore no shirt, only dark cloth pants and a thick rope was used as a belt. On his back was a enormous hammer, about the same size as the man. He made no attempt to hide the curse seal on his back shoulder.

Once he turned to corner, they gently shut the door and took in their surroundings. The room they ran into was a small room, it looked to be a ten foot wide square and equally tall. The walls were stark white, with thick black veins connecting hundreds of kanji symbols together (Kind of like the room that Greed was released from on FMA).

"What do you think it is?" asked Naruto in awe, their earlier conversation pushed to the back of his mind. It sometimes happens that one or more shinobi with relationship problems are put on missions together. When this happens, those shinobi usually enter into a 'Emotional Block' like state. This state is accessed by simply focusing on the mission and pushing everything else into the back of their mind, until its completion. It's usually a self taught ability, and works very well... Until the missions completed. Then all Hell breaks lose between the shinobi.

"I-I don't kn-know." she answered. Activating the Byakugan again, she gazed at the room from all angles. She felt like she should recognize the pattern of seals, but she couldn't place from where. After several more seconds of wondering, her focus fell onto the center of the room. From there, she could see the main source from which all of the veins flowed from. It was a large ring with veins running from North to South, but none of them flowed from East to West, she noticed. It was so familiar, she just couldn't place it.

"Okay," Naruto said, to draw her attention, while taking out a kunai "I'm going to mark this room as the rally point." he said as he carved a small spiral on the wall directly beside the door. The rally point was a precaution encase they were separated. It also worked to state a stronghold. Not necessarily a good one, but at least everyone on the team would know where to go and defend encase of a emergency.

The rally point was used by many ANBU teams, but they always hide them under a genjutsu or a rock. But if an enemy ever finds the mark, then it's quite easy to overthrow the ANBU. The tactic Naruto used was so simple, nobody ever caught it. He had learned something over the years. A good shinobi always looks 'Underneath the Underneath'. There were a lot of good shinobi out there, so Naruto found out to hide something, simply hide it 'Above the Underneath'. Nobody ever spots the ones in plain site. And if they do, they believed it to be a decoy.

"Come on." he said, as he slipped through the door. Hinata quickly followed, as they made their way down the narrow hallways of the lab. After several more minutes of searching, they mapped out the building to be a giant square. It had two main hallways that intersected directly in the middle, and split off into smaller hallways along the sides.

As they ran down a side hall, Hinata pointed out a small office labeled 'Kabuto'. After checking with the Byakugan, they picked lock and slipped inside.

Inside there was a large desk with hundreds of papers neatly stacked on top. Sitting right in the middle, was a folder labeled 'Other Labs'. Hesitantly, he and Hinata walked up to the desk and opened the folder. Written on the first page, was a sentence that made the blood drain from both of their faces.

What Was Written 

_Hello Naruto-kun,_

_From the moment you open this folder, you will have thirty second to escape before this building, you, and everyone inside, will be decimated._

_Best Wishes,_

_Yakushi Kabuto_

_P.S. - That means it's going to explode._

_P.P.S. - Oh, and congratulations on Hokage._

Back to Naruto and Hinata 

(AN: This all happens within 30 seconds)

Without a second thought, they both kicked down the door – coincidently, the flying door hit a passing Chunin and knocked him out – and ran towards the exit as quick as possible. As they made their way down the last corridor, they felt a rapid succession of shock waves hit them, followed by the deafening roar explosions behind them. They could feel the temperature rise as they ran, and knew that they would never make it to the exit door in time.

Halfway down the hall, they could see the large man with the hammer. He wore a confused face for a split second, then started forming hand-seals. As he formed the last hand seal, Hinata knew what he was doing. She didn't know what kind, but she was certain he was constructing a barrier of some sort. Hinata had discovered, that with the Byakugan, she could watch the way chakra was molded and figure out the basics of the jutsu the enemy was using.

She watched as the chakra built in a circle at the stomach, and ran along the chakra veins to each tenketsu. Then it hit her, the room with the rally point! The veins were a replication of the tenketsu points. The reason she recognized it was because it too was shaped to form a barrier. They might not be able to make it to the exit door, but they could make it into the rally point door.

As they ran past the door, Hinata grabbed Naruto by the collar of his jacket and threw him into the room with the rally point. "Hinata," yelled Naruto, but Hinata ignored him as she slammed her hand into the center circle and pumped all the chakra she could into it. She felt the fire enter the door and surround her, then she was thrown to the ground with the force of the explosion.

Then the fire was suddenly gone, and she layed bruised and burned on the ground. After several seconds, she heard a man yell "What the Hell was that?!"

"I don't know! Look, over there!" said another male voice.

"OH MY GOD! It's two kids, and their hurt!" yelled a female voice. Hinata just layed there, as blackness swallowed her.

There you have it. The Prologue's finished. To tell the truth, I was expecting this to be about a 60,000 word story. But from the looks of it, it may be about 80,000. Remember, R&R.


	3. Time Devours All Things

Hey guys, I'm sorry to say this chapter has no NaruHina in it, but it's necessary for the story. Keep in mind that this is a future fic, and that it does not take place in the Naruto series time-frame. But everything comes full-circle in the end, so don't worry.

I've made a bet with a friend. It's called the 'Quidquid Latine Dictum Sit, Altum Videtur' Bet. It means the 'Anything said in Latin sounds Profound' Bet.

The bet says that anything said in Latin sounds philosophical. For example, Non Urinat In Ventum. I'll tell you what it means next chapter. Why does this have anything to do with this Fanfic? Because I'm writing all titles in Latin. Tell me if it sounds more profound than what it really means. It'll help the cause. I need 50 hits that say that I'm right. If I win, she pays me the 20 bucks she owes me from the last bet. (We have nothing better to do in Oklahoma. If you've ever seen the movie 'Rat Race', then picture us as the insane billionaires that bet on pointless things.)

I already have 12 votes from some of my friends, but I need more. She has 15 opposing me. If she wins I have to pay her!!! Please help!!!

(Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters, locations, or concepts.)

Chapter 1

Tempus Edax Rerums

(Time Devours All Things)

Aomori Tsukiko was not having a very good morning. It was Saturday, which meant that she was asleep when seven o'clock hit. Most people sleep in when they have the day off, and Tsukiko was one of them. Yuki, the man that runs the Midori City section of HARC, wasn't. And he decided that she was going to be awakened by a loud, repetitive ringing sound at seven. He said that she was to come into work and to be prepared to travel. They had apparently made some kind of big discovery at the ruins of Konoha.

(AN: I couldn't find a place to work in their looks, so here are some vague descriptions. Tsukiko is 23, has long, black hair, with green eyes. Her usual attire is a small shirt (you pick what color), a brown jacket, and pale blue jeans.)

It wasn't uncommon that Tsukiko was told to travel to random places at random times, this was due to her being the companies field expert. It was her job to go and poke around wherever Historians Active Research Center, or HARC, sends her. They paid researchers millions of dollars to try to piece together the mysteries of the 'Great Shinobi Village Disappearance' that happened five-hundred years ago. So far, they've only been able to tell us that the people back then were a bunch of superstitious idiots.

Although they proved the existence of shinobi, they believe their authority was only gained by spreading mass hysteria and panic. They would tell everyone that enemy villages, or giant demons were killing everyone, then tell everyone that it was the shinobi, who could use magic, that stopped them. How anyone could believe that foxes could grow bigger than buildings and destroy mountains was beyond her comprehension.

But she loved to travel and learn about history, so she didn't mind lending a helping hand to a company that would pay for all of her expenses. Her best friend, room-mate, and exploration partner, Kirakishi Ako, wasn't as enthusiastic about history as she was, but she still helped out were ever she could.

Tsukiko met Ako when they were in middle school, and they've been friends ever since. While Tsukiko was fairly reserve, she loved to go outside. Ako also liked to go outside, but she doesn't have much tolerance for anything annoying. She also has a slight laziness problem. She even shortened Tsukiko's name down to Kiko, and it stuck, so now everyone calls Tsukiko, Kiko.

So here Kiko was, sitting in her apartment room, packing her bags for yet another research trip when she heard a voice from behind "So, where 'ya going?" It was Ako.

"Don't know." she said "Wanna come?"

"Sure." was her only answer as she started walking to go pack. Ako had no boyfriend or family, even though Kiko was her unofficial sister. She was orphaned at an early age, and was forced to grow up fighting for everything she had. Her past made her tough to relate too, and because of that, she's not the best at attracting those who won't beat her when they got drunk. Both girls loved the fact that they had nothing to tie them down, and could travel anywhere in a moments notice.

(AN: Ako is 22, and has short, black hair, and dark blue eyes. She usually wears khaki cargo pants, and long sleeved, casual shirt.)

Legally, she's employed under Kiko as an apprentice, but she's not obligated to go everywhere her friend went. Though she does get paid a small amount by HARC when she does goes, but she usually gives that to Kiko as rent. Although she's not the smartest when it comes to history, she is better versed when compared to the average person, and makes for a good assistant.

After they both packed and locked up, they started looking for the car that HARC promised to send. When they started working for HARC two years ago, they were shocked when the company started sending them personal limousine's to pick them up. Now it was unheard of to be driven in anything else. To think that HARC can afford this kind of treatment only makes Kiko want to meet the owner to personally think him, but know ones ever reported to see him in person or indirectly. Not even the vice president of the company.

HARC is a international corporation that specialized in historical discoveries. It funds researchers, explores, treasure hunters, and just about anyone else that studies history, so that when they make a discovery of any kind, they hand over all rights to HARC so that they can sell it to museums or other private dealers for massive sums of money, while paying the person who discovered it five percent of the profits. For this reason, Kiko was able to support both her and Ako while affording a suit on the top floor of the Hon Hotel.

In the past, Kiko has made quite a few historical discoveries. Her greatest achievement was finding an old photograph of the Hokage Mountain, and proving that there was a fifth head positioned on the extreme left side. She was able to turn that photo into nearly two hundred thousand dollars almost overnight. Even though they sometimes found photo's, only a small fraction were able to be restored using computers. And even fewer held any significant importance.

She still had the original restoration hanging on her wall at home. It showed a large group of people standing in front of the Hokage Mountain. They were each standing in smaller, sub-groups, but still stood close enough that everyone fit in the picture easily. The most noticeable group was the one with the two people wearing green leotards, surrounded by a girl wearing her hair up in buns, and what appeared to be a pissed off, blind kid.

Next, there was group of three. There was a large, not exactly fat kid with vibrant red hair, and the symbol for 'Eat' on his chest plate. Next to him was a kid with a pineapple shaped head that just looked bored. Clinging onto the big guy, was a beautiful young woman with long blond hair, and blue eyes.

Then there stood a group that included a red-eyed woman standing next to a three year old kid, a freakishly huge dog, a guy riding on top of the dog – the scientists didn't know what to say about that one -, a kid that wore a full-body coat, and another cute, young, blind girl.

On either side of the picture was a beautiful woman, about Kiko's age with a chest that made her feel inferior. In front of her was a tall, depressed, pink haired girl, that just screamed 'tomboy'. On the other side were two tall men. One of them had long, puffy, gray hair, and dressed like a kabuki dancer. In front of him was a younger kid with bright blond hair, and whisker marks. There was no arguments that the big chested woman was Tsunade, the Godaime. You could tell by the huge stone face directly behind her.

But there were many arguments about the blond kid. Many believed him to be the Yondaime, but there were others who dismissed it. The mountain is believed to be carved in chronological order. And the boy looked too young to be leader of the village.

The photo soon became as famous as it was confusing. Many experts believe that these kid were part of the military, due to the weapons each of the had strapped to their legs and the presence of Tsunade, but nobody could be for sure.

The only thing most of the people shared in common was the metal plates that they each wore on some part of their bodies. There was much speculation as to what the plates meant; some thought that they symbolized rank, others thought they were simply a fashion statement, since the Hokage was the only one not wearing one.

"_Maybe this trip will reveal something even greater then that. Yuki said that it was important."_ Kiko thought as they arrived at the large HARC building. Since the company had hundreds of priceless artifacts, documents, and other valuables inside. The security system was the most top-of-the-line technological marvel ever conceived.

There were scanners of all kinds; Identification card, retina scanners, finger print scanners, facial scanners, hair follicle scanners, and even a rumor that they could find anybodies records just by showing your face to the cameras – which were in abundance-.

After having their fingers individually scanned, copied in ink, and three types of picture ID later, Kiko and Ako were aloud into the elevator.

"Uptight as usual." commented Ako as they passed by the guard "Keep up the good work."

"Ako," whispered Kiko "if you keep it up, their going to frisk you again." That was one memory she would never forget. Ako had just bought a new cell phone, and as she walked through, it set off the weapons alarm. Without warning, the guard immediately started to search her from behind. The poor man had to have immediate surgery, but they only managed to save one of his 'little soldiers'.

When they reached the top level, they got off and started walking towards Etsuko Yuki's office. Another finger scan later, and they found themselves knocking on Yuki's office door. "Come in." was heard from the other side.

Inside was a comfortable little office with three red armchairs in front of the boss's desk. Yuki was a small, portly man with a receded hairline, and and a perpetual smile. No one was was sure why he smiled so much, some say its to improve morale among the employees. But no matter what reason, he was always happy and took all bad news in stride.

"Kiko! Ako! Welcome, welcome," he greeted as the two girls sat in the chairs "I hope you've been well."

"We've been fine." replied Kiko with a smile. The cheerful man always had that effect on people.

"Yeah." agreed Ako with the same smile.

"Excellent!" he cheered "Now, no time to waste. One of our research teams were digging through the forest inhabiting Konoha, when they came upon a old building with the symbol for 'Fire Country' on the front. Now, inside this building, they found a desk. They believe it belonged to..." he paused for dramatic effect. But the cliffhanger seamed to be bothering him more than it was the other two "Tsunade!!" he finished.

"WHAT!?" the yelled in unison.

"Tsunade! Are you sure?" asked a now exited Kiko.

"No joke!?" asked Ako. She wasn't the best with history, but even she realized just how important this discovery was.

"I don't joke about such serious matters, young lady." said Yuki in a overly offended tone. "Thats not the only thing," he added with a exited smile "the desk was on the top story of a fairly large building. So it escaped all water damage when the dam broke!"

When the ruins of Konoha were finally rediscovered fifty years ago in the unnaturally dense forest, several research teams were investigating it when a mysterious earthquake caused a nearby dam to burst and flood the entire city. That was one of the reasons that it was so hard to find useful documents from that time period even slightly intact.

"Can we see it?" asked Kiko.

"Help yourselves," offered Yuki "just don't get in the way of the guys down there restoring it. It's on the thirty-second floor, and here are some authorization cards." he said while setting two slips of paper on the desk. Each slip had a card attached with a picture of them, next to their names on it. "Just sign the papers saying you received them and head down there. If you have any more questions, Kurou and Nobu are both down there and they can answer them. They were on the retrieval unit that discovered the desk." he added on a side note "I'll be down there in twenty minutes, I've gotta go get some papers to fill out."

(AN: I swear, there shouldn't be any more important OC characters after this. But then again, I am the speaker of naught, so I might be lying about that. I don't think I am, though. ;)

Those names but a bad taste in both girls mouths. Kurou and Nobu were the rival exploration team. Well, technically, they're the other exploration team that works for HARC, and they don't compete against each other. Those two are just self-righteous, holier-than-thou, jerks that think they know everything. And they're usually right.

After they signed the sheets, they left the office in a depressed mood. The desk was a great archaeological find, and any historian would cut off their own hands to even touch it with the now amputated limb... and Kurou and Nobu found it. Ako could hear the gloating already as they climbed into the elevator. Kurou would say _"We found it and you didn't, HAHAHA. You just wish that you were HOLD THE DOOR!"_ Why did the impersonating voice in her head tell her to hold the door?

"Did ya hear me Ako?!" yelled a voice. Ako looked down the hall through the doors to see both Kurou and Nobu running full speed towards them waving their arms, each with a bag strapped to their backs. "HOLD THE DOOR!" Kurou yelled.

Kurou was always the leader of the two. He was a 'take-charge' person, and was always more comfortable giving orders over following them, but would always end up getting his hands dirty. He had unruly, short, chocolate colored hair and a strong jaw. His adventuring clothes were always a pair of baggy cargo pants, and zipped, brown leather jacket. Kiko would of thought he would of looked nice if wasn't such a ass-hole.

Nobu was a fairly thin man with small glasses, and wore typical jeans and a white button-up shirt. He was by far the more likable of the two men with his quite, intelligent manner. He kept Kurou in line, but easily got nervous when under stress. Nobu was the brains of the two, while Kurou was the brawn and heart. Altogether, they made a good team and bugged the hell out of the two girls.

"HEY!" yelled Kiko cheerfully while waving back, then turned to Ako, who was nearest the control panel, and whispered "Close the doors. Quick!"

Ako stealthily slid her hand over and hit the 'Close Doors' button. The doors immediately started to close. Ako then yelled to the men "The buttons stuck!" while faking stress "I can't stop it!"

Kurou quickly slipped the bag off his back and threw it towards them like a bowling ball. The sliding bag fit snuggly between the closing doors and held them open. Moments later the two guys came running through the doors. "Ha ha!" Kurou exclaimed happily "Barely made it!"

After repositioning his glasses, Nobu leaned over to Ako and whispered "Maybe next time." He knew all to well of just how annoying Kurou can be at times.

Ako just smiled back at him and asked "What do you mean by 'maybe'? I only fail once."

"Thats what you said last time." he jabbed.

"So," Kurou started "where are you lovely young ladies heading on this fine day." he said with pride.

Kiko knew he was waiting for her to mention the desk, and inflate his ego even more. She wasn't going to be the one say it first and knew he wasn't either. It was a game they played almost every time they met. Sadly, she was trailing in the scores by two. "You know," she started "just walking here and there."

"Is that so? Have you talked to Yuki yet?"

"Yeah, we had a little chat with him."

"What about?"

"You know, the weather and other _not so important things."_ she put extra emphasis on the last part.

"Like what?" he asked, catching what she was saying... or not saying.

This battle of saying something while not saying a thing went on for the entire trip to the restoration lab. Nobu and Ako had started taking bets twelve games ago. Unlike their partners, their scores were tied, but it looked like Kurou was going to win this match. Meaning Ako would soon owe Nobu twenty bucks. They didn't even need words to state their bets nowadays. The moment the game started, one of them would nod their heads towards one of the others to stake their claim. The other would state the sum of money using fingers. Then they would switch places next time the game would start.

The saddest part of the whole thing is that Kiko was the one leading the way to the restoration room, meaning that both of them knew about the game, but just didn't want to lose. "I just can't remember who succeeded the Yondaime. Can you Kiko?" asked Kurou, trying to get her to say Tsunade.

Kiko wasn't falling for it, Kurou may be an egocentrical ass-hole, but he knew his history. Maybe not as much as Kiko, Ako, or Nobu, but he knew enough to make a living out of it. Even at the cost of her pride, she would not except defeat. "Nope, can't think of it."

"Eh," he shrugged. Then suddenly he got the most wicked smile on his face "So, where are we heading?" he asked as they walked through the restoration room entrance.

Kiko stiffened her posture while she walked. Nobu grinned at Ako, who was fidgeting with her fingers nervously. "Well," started Kiko after several seconds "were gooooooiiiiinnnngggg toooo-" she was trying to draw out as much time as she could, but was interrupted by Yuki walking up to them.

"Were have you four been?" he asked happily "I beat you guys here. And I had to go though the accounting district." Everyone knows you don't purposely walk though the accounting district. It's a endless maze of papers, rubber stamps, cubicle's, and line after line of people. Nobody goes there unless absolutely necessary.

Nobu decided to speak up then, "Well, we were on our way here, but had to stop at achieving."

Yuki looked a little confused by this. Ako then finished the excuse, "We couldn't think of the word that meant '_A Table You Write On'"_ When she was done, Yuki understood perfectly. He had been mixed up in one of their games once before.

"Oh," Yuki said, while deciding to put an end to the game. They could get violent after an hour or two. "The word you were looking for was desk. As in the desk that Kurou found that belonged to Tsunade, the Godaime. The same one that you four are going to go look at right now."

"Ohhh!" said Kurou in a sudden 'realization' "Thats the word. I couldn't think of it. Could you Kiko?"

"Nope," Kiko said "It just didn't come to me until now."

"Thanks!" cheered Ako as she ran forward and kissed Yuki on the cheek "You saved me twenty bucks."

"Well then," said Yuki well under a light blush "Shall we continue forward to unravel the mysteries of the past, like were all being paid to do?" A bit of a hint in his voice. He was a nice guy, but he was still their boss.

"Lets go," said Kiko "I'm dieing to see this thing."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvv

After several more security checks, they found themselves staring at the bulky, brown desk. It was behind a plastic, clean room tarp. Around it, buzzed several men dressed in white that were carefully taking out the various contents of the desk. Kiko couldn't help but notice the sheer number of saki bottles that were taken out of it.

She was about to charge in and start snooping around, when Yuki called her over to a large computer in the corner of the room. She recognized the computer as a Ink Residue Detector, or IRD. Its main function is to take old documents, and scan them for ink residue. It then makes a new copy of the document by replicating the ink residue on a new sheet of paper. As long as the document is intact, it can copy it no matter how damaged.

"What's up?" Kiko asked Yuri.

"Well," started Yuki "we found this sheet of paper wedged inside of a crease in the desk. Because it was surrounded by polished wood and not open to the air, it was fairly readable. It had a location written on it, and I want you guys to investigate it. Were waiting on this analysis to finish so that we can learn abit more about it."

"Wait!" screamed Kiko "When you say 'you guys', you mean me and Ako... by ourselves, right?" she was already showing signs of denial, because she knew what he meant.

"No," said Yuki with an devious smile "I mean 'you guys', as in you, Ako, Nobu, and Kurou. All alone in the remote jungle... alone... in the dark... sleeping five feet away from each other." he whispering the last part to her. He loved pairing these two groups together. Of course there were other exploration groups, but these two always came back with amazing finds, and even more amazingly funny stories.

"I hate you." she said in a sigh.

"No you don't, I sign you paychecks." was his comeback, and she had to agree with him. Her love for her paychecks overpowers her hate of Kurou's group. But just barely.

A series of beeping noises drew her attention back to the IRD. A little sheet of paper started to seep out of a small port in the machine. Kurou quickly snatched it out and layed it on a small table for them all to read.

What Was Written

_ANBU CAPTAINS REPORT_

_ANBU serial # 19473-12b_

_ANBU TEAM: #10_

_SUBJECT: CLASSIFIED_

_URGENCY LEVEL: AVERAGE_

_REPORT PAGE – 6 of 6_

_Guided by the information your ANBU recently uncovered (see page 5), we sent a scouting party exactly 7.3 kilometers south, south-east of Mt. Aeonian. Upon arrival, we immediately noticed the signs of human life inhabiting the area (deer trails that all tend to avoid the targeted location, scuffed tree bark atop high branches, etc). After close inspection of the area, we believe to have found the entrance into one of Orochimaru's (Missing-nin serial # 319-7c) minor experimental testing labs._

_We were not able to gain entrance into the facility due to the injuries sustained by the Cloud-nins in-route to the objective location. For a complete list of injuries, see page 3 included in the report._

_I recommend sending a small infiltration team into the lab in order to find information on the more major laboratories. A raid on the lab has a high chance of failure, based on previous lab raids, due to their many defensive traps. We've surmised that there is an estimated total of three low level Curse-sealed Oto-nin inside the facility, and twelve genin-level medic-nins. This concludes the mission ANBU team #10 underwent._

_**Rock Lee**_

Back to the Exploration Group.

"Hmmm," hummed Nobu "did any of you guys understand that?"

"Bits and pieces," answered Kiko "but this is definitely real. They use terms and concepts that no ordinary college level graduate would even understand."

"Yes, like the ANBU. We've only found two, maybe three reports that even mention that group. This paper right here probably reveals more about them then anything we've found so far."

"HA HA!" announced Kurou as he took a superhero stance "Looks like another score for us!"

"What are your scores now? Three?" asked Ako.

"With this discovery," added Yuki "their tied with you in points." he said while looking at Ako "Well then, shall you be off? If you leave now, you should arrive there about three o'clock. That should give you a good chance to establish a good campsite."

"Seven point three kilometers South, South-East of Mt. Aeonian it is then." said Kurou "I'll get a satellite image of the area to see if we can land a helicopter anywhere close."

"I'll pilot!" shouted Nobu quickly.

"I'll co-pilot!" added Ako. It's not that she was thrilled to be sitting next to the guy, but she would be damned if she was going to let Kurou and Kiko be co-pilots. They tend to get dangerous when they sit nearby one-another. Ako didn't know there was more than one way to fly a helicopter, until that particular scenario occurred.

"Well, it looks like I get to call the airport for clearance." said Kiko as she walked out the door.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvv

(AN: Well, there you have it. The first 'non-prologue' chapter. The NaruHina will probably come next chapter. I say probably, because I still haven't written it yet. Anyway, _**Please Review!!!!!**_ I want to think all of you that have been reviewing; Zeroharm, Dragon Man 180, Tzeentch, Zansatsu89, fried ryce, and a special thanks to ArmorOfGeddon for taking the time to fill me in on all of the important parts that I've missed in the Naruto series. I'm going to stick with the original overview of my story, but I thought of a few empty parts that this knowledge has filled. Thanks a ton, all of you.)


	4. Nekura

(Well guys, I lost the bet. She cheated by using both MySpace and Facebook to ask people. I ended with 39 and she got 51, so I'm not going to title in Latin anymore. And I'm pretty sure that my schedule for the next week involves the Seventh Level of Hell. Which means I won't be updating for a while. That's why I'm posting this chapter prematurely. But it practically guarantees that there will be a lot NaruHina next chapter. I'm going to devote it entirely to them.

In the reviews (Thank you guy's), I got several warnings about not going overboard with OC's. These two chapters are 'setting the foundation' of Reflections/Illusion. Bare with it, its over as of this chapter. But the OC's are still gonna be in there, just on the sidelines most of the time. You can't have a fic like this, and not have supporting characters, right?

Oh, that Latin quote from last chapter, it means 'Don't Piss into the Wind'.)

(Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, any characters, concepts, or locations. Except for the one's that Original Characters and Locations. I think I own them.)

The trip could be summed up in one word... headache. Kurou picked at Kiko, Ako lost another two more bets, Nobu nagged at Kurou about him yelling, and Kiko was complaining about Nobu's driving... I mean flying.

"So I say," said Kurou while in the middle of another 'hilarious' story "who the hell are you? And he says 'I'm your tour guide.', Ah ha ha ha!!!"

"I swear Kurou," threatened Ako from one of the front seats "if you tell one more joke, I'm going to hang you from this thing!" she said while motioning towards the helicopter they were riding in.

"Come on," he urged "just one more. Please?"

"No," said Nobu "were almost there, and I need you to keep a look out for the landing spot you found."

"Yeah, about that." said Kurou in a guilty tone "Nows probably the best time to mention that the landing spots about a two kilometers East of the site. And that one's a risky one to land at. There's a lot of swamp water there, and could be dangerous. There's another one about four kilometers South, and I think it might be our best bet, even though its downhill from the site."

Everyone turned to the backseat to glare at him. He had told them that he had found a landing spot, but he failed to mention this particular little smidgen of information. They had packed excavation equipment that was not the easiest to move around when on a flat, even surface, let alone when hiking uphill through the dense forest or swamps.

As they stared at him, they didn't miss the subtle upward twitches of his lips or the muffled snickers that escaped his mouth. He then spontaneously bust out into a fit of laughter. "AH HA HA HA, you guys are so easy to fool! There's a clear spot thats big enough to land this hunk-of-junk right in front of the site. It should even be big enough for the camp! But the tension in here was to much not to try one little joke." he said while still laughing.

"Do we have any rope?" asked Ako to no one.

"I think its in the storage compartment," answered Kiko while turning her head towards the annoying man "but instead, how 'bout we settle for you setting up camp while we look around a bit."

"I agree." said Ako.

"Me too." agreed Nobu.

"Now hold on a minute, I'm the one who found that desk and I should be the one to find anything it leads too!" yelled Kurou.

"Is that so?" asked Nobu in pseudo-curiosity "I'm the one to find the building that it was in; Does that mean I'm completely entitled to the find?"

"Well... No, but..."

"Quite, both of you!" commanded Ako, while looking through binoculars "I think I see it."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

After establishing a base camp near the temporarily grounded helicopter, the four decided to walk the area and try to find an entrance into the small, but wide building that made up the excavation site. The area was surrounded by a dense forest that had encroached on the small structure. After circling the ancient complex, they came upon a small depression that formed the narrow walkway which lead to a large stone slab sitting against the wall at the end.

"Do you think its a door?" asked Kiko as she examined the rock.

"Looks like it." confirmed Ako, while she traced the outside edges of the slab with her hand. On the bottom left corner, there was a small, foot wide gap that released a steady breeze from within. "Hey guys!" she yelled, trying to get their other party members attention.

The two men were several meters up the open air hallway. Nobu was squatting over a bright red flower that had grown between the cracks in the stone floors, and was taking notes on a clipboard. While Kurou was standing several feet from the mouth of the hall; staring out into the woods with a unreadable face.

Nobu was the only one to respond, "What is it?"

"We found a way in!" she yelled back excitedly.

With a groan, he calmly stood and started walking towards them. Halfway there, he turned back to Kurou, "Ya coming?" he asked.

"Yeah." Kurou answered, but didn't make any movement to leave the spot. Shrugging, Nobu started making his way towards the girls.

"So," asked Nobu when he reached them "tell me what you found."

"A door, we think." answered Kiko "But it could just be an opening to let air in. But its an opening regardless of what kind."

"Good." said Nobu "We can start on it first thing in the morning." he said while checking the time and suns position. It had already started to set. "Lets head back and get some sleep, we'll need it."

"Where's Kurou?" asked Ako.

"He's up there," pointed Nobu "spacing out."

"Well, lets get him and start back, I'm tired."

The two girls passed by Kurou without a word, intent on as much sleep they could muster. If they were going to beat the guys tomorrow, they would need it.

"Hey," called Nobu to Kurou, who was standing three feet from him "you over there in 'Space-Out' Land! Anyone home?"

"Huh?" asked Kurou in a daze. Realizing his position, he quickly laughed out "Oh, sorry. I was a hundred miles away."

"Well, snap out of it. We found an entrance and are heading back to camp... What's wrong?" he asked while studying the other mans face.

"Just a weird feeling. It feels like were being watched." he said while looking out into the forest "I'm not easily scared, but the little voice in my head's telling me to watch my back. It's got me on edge."

"It's probably just the girls." offered Nobu "It wouldn't surprise me if they drugged us in our sleep, and when inside tonight." he joked as he looked back at the stone slab twenty meters away.

"Ha Ha! Your most likely right, but it doesn't make the feeling any less existent. Lets go."

"First, I wanna grab some of these flowers." Nobu said while crouching next to the red flower again.

"Why? What are they?"

"If I'm right, then their nekura flowers."

"Nekura?"

"Yeah," Nobu confirmed "legend says that they grow were demons live. While thats total B.S., nobody can explain why they only grow at certain shrines and other holy sites were they claim to have sealed a demon away in. Their incredibly rare."

"Well," said Kurou while looking around "this place certainly isn't any 'Holy' spot. It's a dump." "_Though it would explain why this 'being watched' feeling is so strong... Great! Now I'm getting paranoid! What am I, ten?"_ he asked mentally.

"That's the same thing I was thinking. If we can find the common point between the shrines that these grow at, and this place, we could be credited with the find."

"Ha Ha! Another point for us." he said enthusiastically, pushing back all negative thoughts dealing with the strange sense of danger.

"I was thinking along the lines of another payment, but I'll give you full credit if you give me your share. Now help me find more of them."

Kurou wasn't even listening at this point, he was to lost in thought about beating Kiko in the points race and winning her affection. So when Nobu stated the deal, he just agreed without knowing what he agreed to.

But as the two men started their flower picking game, they didn't notice the glowing pair of red eyes that stared at them from atop a tall tree. Then, after a near inaudible scraping of leaves, the eyes were gone.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The sun rise came to early for both parties, but by seven o'clock, they were ready to venture into the unknown abyss of the ancient building. After rechecking her supplies, Kiko hoisted the the large bag up on her back and exited the tent. As she climbed out, she noted the weather. It was going to be one of those perfect days; sunny, light breeze, puffy white clouds, the works.

Taking heavy strides across the dew soaked grass, she came upon the deep depression of the excavation site. There at the entrance, was Nobu and Kurou trying valiantly to move the heavy stone barrier.

"Need some help?" she asked as she approached.

"I... THINK...WE... GOT... IT!" strained Kurou against the rock. It hadn't moved an inch from yesterday.

"WERE'S... AKO?" asked Nobu with little breath.

"Getting the hydraulic press." was Ako's smug response as she walked up from behind Kiko, pushing the machine that they would need to move the rock.

After wedging the press into the small gap at the bottom, it was a simple chore of pumping on the small lever to move the seemingly unmovable rock away. The girls had it done by the time the guys had caught their breaths.

Inside was dark. Even with the light from the outside, it was still black on the inside. As they entered, Kurou ran a finger along the walls, leaving a clean trail behind. He muttered something about "soot" as he wiped his now dirty finger on his jacket.

As they slowly made their way through the complex, they made sure to check for any pitfalls, or large rolling stone triggering wires. The last thing they wanted to pull was an Ind Jo mistake. Even though they proceeded carefully, they couldn't stop but be reckless when, in the middle of the hall, about ten meters down the hall, was a half formed sphere jutting out from the floor.

As they approached, they noticed the unmistakable shape of a all bones, human arm sticking out of the sphere.

"Oh my..." gasped Kiko as they examined the body.

"Look at the size of that man!" said Kurou "He had to be at least eight foot tall!"

"Well, what do you make of this?" asked Nobu while picking up a rusted bar with a lever motion. On the grounded end of the bar, was a giant mound of metal that still rested on the ground.

"A hammer, maybe?" suggested Kurou.

"That's one hell of a hammer!" said Ako in amazement "Is it heavy?"

"Very." was his response as he tried to lift it.

"What do ya think of the sphere thingy?" asked Kiko as she broke off a piece of the encompassing rock at its most extreme edge.

"I don't know about that, but I think this fella right here, plus all of his accessories, will be enough to pay us all off for a month!" said a smiling Kurou.

"You do realize this was once a person, right?" asked Kiko disgustedly.

"Yeah, so? It's not like he's using his bones or that heap of steel anymore." he said while pointing to the hammer.

"Unbelievable! That's got to be the most disrespectful, arrogant, pigheadedness thing I've ever heard!" yelled an enraged Kiko.

Seeing were this was going, Nobu lightly tapped Ako on the shoulder and whispered "This could take awhile, lets check behind some of these rooms while we wait."

"Okay." she said back.

With their flashlights in hand, they tried to force open one of the many doorways in the hall, but they appeared to have been welded shut by whatever force had covered the wall with the powdery soot. "Hey, that ones open." pointed out Ako as she looked at the one door that was opened wide.

As the two took their first steps to the door, Kiko, in the midst of their argument, somehow convinced Kurou to try to drag the large 'hammer' outside so they could see it in better light.

He lifted with all of his strength to hoist the large hunk of metal onto his back, but accidentally hit the sandstone wall behind him. The impact resulted in a small fissure to flower into several different direction and, unknown to the four explorer's, crack through the walls into the room with the open door. Inside the room, the crack stretched out and split one of the brittle black veins that enveloped the walls.

Instantly, a powerful shock wave and fire burst forth from the room and nearly consumed Nobu, who jumped back in the nick of time.

Everyone was quite for several seconds, two shocked to say anything. Then...

"What the HELL was that!?" Kurou yelled as the smoke cleared. The hammer clamoring to the floor.

"I don't know!" said Nobu as he glanced inside of the room "Look, over there!" he pointed.

Ako was the second person to reach the doorway. When she looked in, she could see two figures, sprawled out on the floor. They both wore identical outfits; a orange and black jacket, and black pants. The only difference was that one of them, a teenage boy by the looks of it, had a large hole burned out of his jacket. It was positioned over his stomach, and had all of the skin burned off the area. He wasn't moving.

The other person, a teenage girl, looked as thou she was trying to move, but failing due to the fact that she was either dying, or losing consciousness.

"OH MY GOD! It's two kids, and their hurt!" she yelled as she ran forward to help. Two seconds later, she was joined by the other members of her group.

"Who are they, I wonder?" asked Kiko from the back. Her stomach wasn't very tolerable when it came to blood.

"I don't know," answered Nobu as he took in the sight of the burn " but we have to get them to a hospital! ASAP!"

"I'll go get the chopper prepped!" called Kurou, who was already out the door.

"Stay here in case they wake up!" Ako commanded Nobu "Kiko, lets go get something to carry them on!" She had taken a course to be a nurse's assistant several years ago. She failed, but some of the knowledge stuck.

"Okay!" said Kiko and Nobu at once.

Nekura Dark-Natured

AN: Sadly, thats it for today. I know its short, but I'm not going to be able to write for the next week and I want to see what everyone thinks... At least all of you that review. Thank you, Chronostorm (Thanks!), loki09 aka ttre208 (you need a new name or something! That's hard to type, but I'll forgive ya because you reviewed.), zeroharm (The goodness is next chapter, I swear!), Tzeentch (I will as soon as I can), DG Friendly (I may have lost the bet, but at least you tried to help), Greybane (I agree on the French), destiny's sweet melody (Will do!), Tigerrelly (Thanks!), JouninTroublesome (Psycho maybe?), Crazy No Jutsu (Thanks for putting up with them), TimeShifter (It was off the top of my head), Dragon Man 180 (It could be a new fashion style? Hmm), The Gandhara (Thanks for reviewing all three chapter instead of just one. It helps keep track of what your talking about), and charmingandsweet (Thanks!). I'll see you guys next time I post.


	5. Miscommunication

Hey, I had a break in my 'Schedule From Hell!!!'. While I was in the waiting room for **SEVEN HOURS!**, I started writing this. Now I'm home for the day (and catching a sickness from the hospital), so I thought I'd update. Ironically, it takes place in a hospital.

(Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, any related characters, locations, or concepts. I do own this particular story though... I think)

vvvvvvvvvvvvv

This was bad. After they got the two unconscious teens into the helicopter, the boy started seizing. It took Ako and Nobu to restrain each arm, and Kurou to hold both legs down. The boy had some muscles on him, even if it didn't look like he would. The seizure only lasted twenty seconds, but every few minutes, he would start twitching as if in pain.

The girl hadn't woken up yet either. Though she didn't look like she was as injured as the boy, she was still lightly burned and had large bruises enveloping her cheek and arms. When Ako had checked to see if her eyes were dilated, she was surprised to find pale white, instead of normal colors. This struck a chord with both women, but they couldn't place from where.

Instead of flying them all the way back to Midori City, they decided to try the local town of Aorio. Aorio didn't have a famous Burn Ward like the Midori Hospital did, but they were closer. Kiko estimated it to be a thirty minute flight, but didn't include the wind into her estimation. It was blowing against them and looked like it would escalate into a thunder storm soon.

"Are we almost there?" asked Ako as she placed a rolled up jacket under the unconscious girls head.

"Almost." answered Kiko "About another ten minutes. I've already gotten clearance from the hospital to land on their roof. I'm going to need your guys help with finding it though. It doesn't look like that boy can hold out much longer." The boy was breathing harder by the second.

"Did you guys find any ID or anything like that?" Ako asked Nobu.

"No, theres nothing." he said while holding out empty hands, as if the girls wouldn't believe him.

"What do you think they were doing in there?" she asked with a slight blush. Automatically presuming the most embarrassing story.

"By the looks of it, the same thing we were doing." said Kurou while holding up a strap with a small pouch attached that he had taken from the boy. "This kid's got knives, scrolls, and these weird, four pointed blade thingies that they took from the site." he said while holding up a four pointed metal star, with sharpened edges and a ring in the middle.

"And the suits their wearing are flame retardant." cut in Nobu "Their no amateurs. It's no doubt that they've done this before." Traps were common in sites like that.

"What do ya think of this?" Kurou asked while holding up the metal plate that he took off the boys forehead.

"A trophy maybe?" asked Kiko "The girls got one two. They probably found them inside and are proud of them." The metal plate was making another alarm go off in her head, but yet again, the answer refused to jump to the front of her mind. "There it is!" she screamed as she spotted the small town under her. "Hang on tight!"

"What do you MEAAGHHHH!!!!" Ako screamed as the helicopter took a sudden plunge downward that was more than marginally unsafe.

vvvvvvvvvvvvv 3 Hours Later vvvvvvvvvvvvv

**Beep – Beep – Beep**

"_Where am I?"_ she thought as she heard the steady beeping noise. She could tell that she was lying down on a bed, and that it was uncomfortable. But she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes yet. She was truly exhausted.

The third thing she noticed was the smell. It was sharp and clean. The kind of smell you get when you try to make something odorless, but always fail. The fourth thing she noticed was was her mouth. It was dry. She needed water, and soon._ "A hospital maybe?" _She thought. It wouldn't be the first time she awoke in a hospital, and all the past experiences supported this theory.

After seven eternities – or so it seemed – she was able to pry open her eyes. The sight before her confirmed her suspicions. She was in a hospital room built for a single person. She was hooked up to a IV, and a heart monitor. In the corner, was a women several years older than her reading a book while sitting in the only chair.

With much effort, she was able to scrap together a sentence in her head to ask the women. It was supposed sound something like 'Hello, do you know were I am?'. But when she finally pushed the air through her throat to say it, it sounded like a low "Aaahhhuuu-".

The womens book was instantly on the ground. "Oh, your awake!" she said happily surprised. Hinata tried to sit up but was stopped by a second persons hand pushing her back down.

"Woo there." said the second person with a caring female voice. Hinata slowly turned her head to the follow the halting arm upward to meet the face of a second women. "You just lay there and be still." she commanded.

The first woman stood up and said "Don't worry, your in the hospital and safe. My names Aomori Tsukiko, but you can just call me Kiko, okay?"

Hinata was about to respond when she was interrupted by the second woman. "And my names Kirakishi Ako, everyone calls me Ako." she said in a imitating voice.

"Ako," the one called Kiko scolded "your going to scare her if keep at it."

"_Scare me?"_ Hinata thought._ "Wouldn't a joke like that usually lighten the atmosphere?"_

"Can you tell me your name, sweety?" Kiko asked.

"My names H-Hinata, Kiko-san." Hinata said shyly.

"San?" scoffed Ako. "You mean like an honorific?"

Hinata nodded.

"Ha ha, I haven't heard anyone use one of those since my nurse's training at the old folk's home! A old man called me 'Ako-chan'!"

Hinata blushed intensely._ "When was the last time I heard someone use one of those?"_ she thought quickly. She could have sworn that the shop owner that she went to before the mission had used 'san' when talking to her. He was only around twenty years old.

Kiko quickly took her hand and held it up in front of her and said "Hinata, will you excuse us for a second? I've gotta talk to Ako for a second."

"I-I don't mind." she said quietly._ "Why is everyone acting weird? She held my hand just to talk to me."_

"Okay, we'll be just outside this door. Call us if you need anything, got it?"

"Y-yes." she said after a second.

She watched as Kiko pushed Ako into the hallway forcefully, then jogged in and dug a notebook from her bag that was next to the chair, and run back outside. Activating her Byakugan, she watched as Kiko wrote something down on the notebook and handed it to Ako.

"_What are you doing in there?"_ Kiko wrote, then handed the pen and paper to Ako.

"_What do you mean, and why are we writing all this down?"_ replied Ako.

"_What I mean, is that your going to scare the poor girl if you keep mixing your voice up like that. And were writing because 'they' tend to have very good hearing"_

Hinata started to get nervous after reading that last sentence. It was obvious that the two women knew she was a shinobi, but didn't appear to be shinobi themselves. She really didn't want to have to kill them. They seemed fairly nice. She watched as the written conversation continued.

"_It was a joke!"_

"_It doesn't matter, you have to be more careful about what you say and how you say it when your around 'them'."_

"_Fine!"_

"_And then there's the whole 'honorific' thing. She might have come from a traditional family, or something like that. She's already confused enough without you making fun of her."_

"_I'll apologize then, if it'll make you happy."_

"_Good, now where's Nobu and Kurou?"_

"_Their with the blond kid. He hasn't woken up yet, and the doctors say it doesn't look good."_

That was all Hinata heard/read of the outside conversation. The memories of the past couple days flooded back to her; The kiss, Kabuto, The lab, the love confessions, the explosion, the room. She quickly scanned the hospital as far as she could see, but the Byakugan had a major flaw. When she uses it to look through a solid wall, her range of vision is cut in half. If she looks through another wall, its cut in half again. She was only able to search the surrounding four rooms, and none of them housed Naruto.

Without a wince, she pulled the IV out of the arm, and with a slight motion of her hand, healed the hole created. Though she was a bit more wobbly than she'd like, she found that she could stand upright and walk. She hobbled over to the door, frightening both women when she demanded "Where's Naruto-kun!?"

Exchanging glances, Kiko and Ako both let out a sigh. Then Kiko asked "That the boys name, isn't it? The one you were with?"

"Yes! Where is he?!" she was almost pleading now.

"We'll guide you to him, but you can't be yelling. This is a hospital after all." commented Ako with a smile.

Silently, the two led Hinata to the Burn Ward. What confused Hinata was that even though the two kept a hold of each of her arms, like a good guard should, the strength of which they held her with would have taken almost no effort to break. She figured that they must have some jutsu or a kekkei genkai that they could use to restrain her if she tried to escape. She would have to bide her time.

The hospital wasn't a big one. Only three stories tall, and about five-hundred meters wide, but it had windows that covered entire walls. It didn't exactly give off the 'Evil Testing Laboratory' feel to it, but in a ninjas line of work, one couldn't afford to judge by appearance. Outside, she could see that the hospital was positioned on top of a hill, with a sparse forest surrounding it. And the machines inside were nothing like the ones she'd seen in the Konoha Hospital.

Finally, they stopped at room 127B. Inside was Naruto. He was lying on one of the two beds next to the window. Hinata didn't pay much attention to the other occupants of the room as her two 'guards' escorted her over to the bedside.

He had a blanket pulled up to his waist, and no shirt on. Thankfully for Hinata, or not so much for the more adult side of Hinata, he was wearing a pair of scrub pants. On his gut were bandages zig-zagging back and forth, and a large square bandage on his chin. He was unconscious, but alive and with a steady heartbeat.

Seeing how Naruto was dressed brought her attention to what she must look like. Glancing in small dressing mirror hanging on the door, she could see that they had dressed her in the standard hospital gown, but saved her the humiliation of having a open back. There was a large strip of gauze tapped to her cheek, but overall, she looked presentable.

Hesitantly, she reached out to take his hand in hers. It was limp and heavy, but warm all the same. Without hand-signs, she performed a diagnostic jutsu to check under the bandages on his stomach. It was a burn. Clearly chakra based by the spiral shape it formed on his navel, but when did he get it?

Unbeknown to Hinata, the ruffled blanket on Naruto's waist blocked both womens, and the two men's that they just woke up, views of the bluish green chakra exerted.

"What's she doing?" asked Ako quietly as she watched Hinata run her hands delicately over Naruto's stomach.

"Well, she's blind. It's the only way she can tell what's going on with him besides the heart-monitor." whispered Kiko.

"Did you find out anything about them yet?" asked Nobu equally as quite.

"Just that their names are Hinata and Naruto. We don't know their family names yet."

"We should probably break them up and force some answers out of her." said Kurou bluntly.

"Your can't!" she whispered harshly.

"To Hell I can't!" he yelled "Instead of here baby-sitting, we could be back at that excavation site getting rich! But NOOOO," he said drawing out the 'O', "instead were taking care of a bunch of brats that already took thousands of dollars worth of artifacts and claimed them as their own! Not to mention, that a storms about to hit and we left all of our gear sitting around outside!"

"Quit being stubborn." said Nobu while rubbing his temples to ward of a headache "You and I both know that HARC will pay for all the gear, and the fuel we used to get here. And the two kids found the site without satellites and so forth. They deserve what they found."

"Thats not the point!" he yelled quietly again "What if word gets out that they found that site? What if someone gets there before we get back? We could get fired!"

"Yuki's – their boss – not that kind of guy, and you know that. Now, lets try to CALMLY get some answers from this 'Hinata' girl. She's probably already freaked out, and won't be very cooperative." 

Hinata was still holding Naruto's hand when Kiko approached her, pulling a chair behind. When she sat down, Kiko gently tapped Hinata on the shoulder and asked "Hinata dear, do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"_Here it comes!"_ Hinata thought_ "There going to try to get me to betray Konoha, but as long as they have Naruto like this, I can't do anything but go along with them! I'll humor them until he wakes up, but I won't tell them were I came from... I know, I'll claim amnesia!_

"I-I don't mind." Hinata said in a sad and shy tone "But, I'm afraid I don't remember much of what happened."

"That's okay! I'm sure it'll come back in a few days." Kiko said happily as she was joined by the others "First off, I'd like to introduce you to Kurou and Nobu. Their our temporary partner's for now, but hopefully not for too long." then she added in a whisper "Their not very smart."

Nobu, who was on Kiko's left, said in a kind and warm voice "Hi, I'm Nobu and I'm smarter than she makes me seem." he was careful not to say 'smarter than I look'. "But I can't claim the same for the other guy."

The other guy just said "I'm Kurou." in a fairly rude voice.

"_Those two are here to intimidate me. But I've faced bigger men in my time."_ Hinata thought. She didn't earn her A-rank status by being frightened by sheer muscle mass._ "They must think I'm a simple Chunin."_

"Hello, Kurou-san, Nobu-san." Hinata said politely.

Before Kurou could get a comment in about the honorific, Kiko shot him a death glare and a quick hand gesture of pretending to drag a knife across her own throat.

Hinata witnessed the exchange of expressions with a mental note being made. 'Note to Self: Kiko is the superior in the group. She must have a kekkei genkai of some sorts due to her lack of weapons'.

"Hinata," asked Kiko "can you tell me what your family name is?"

"I d-don't have one." said Hinata.

"You don't have a family name, or you just don't remember?"

"I-I don't have one. My father disowned me several years ago, and I've been living on my own since then." Theirs no problem with telling the truth.

"Oh!" gasped both Kiko and Ako "That's horrible!" their disbelief sounded real.

"D-don't worry about it. He wasn't much of a father. I was never good enough for him."

"What about your mom?" asked Ako.

"She d-died when my s-sister was born." said Hinata dejectedly.

Ako and Kiko were beyond pissed. How could a father throw out a blind girl before she's even old enough to get a job!

"How did you find a place to live?"

"I had a god-mother that helped me find an apartment."

"Where is she now?" asked Kiko while fighting back tears. This was by far the saddest story she had ever heard.

"She... she died." lied Hinata. Tsunade wasn't really dead, but these people didn't act like they knew anything other than the fact that she was a ninja, and there was no reason to give them more links to the chain.

"Where do you live now?" asked Nobu.

"I..." she froze, what was a good excuse. Then without thinking of the consequences, she blurted out "I travel around with Naruto-kun." It was always one of her dreams to travel the lands with him after they both retire from being shinobi – in Naruto's case, Hokage – and their kids are grown.

"And what about Naruto? Tell me about him." demanded Kiko kindly.

"Naruto-kun is the nicest, kindest person I've e-ever met."

"What's his family name?"

"Uzumaki." she said before she could stop herself. But instead of freezing up or berating herself for the blunder, she just played on it casually. "But his whole family died before I met him. He told me once that it was the day that he was born."

"So where did he live before he met you?"

"He lived by himself in a apartment since he was kicked out of the orphanage." Hinata was seriously about to start crying along with the other two woman.

"But you two can't be seventeen yet, can you?" asked Nobu. Kurou was still sulking the back.

"No, I was fifteen, and he was six when we started living alone."

"WHAT!?" was the combined yell from the room. "Why didn't you guys report them?! Heads will roll for this, you just wait!" yelled a enraged Ako. She'd been in an orphanage and it was hard. But to grow up like that... That wasn't human to treat a child like that.

Tears were starting to flood Hinata's eyes as she answered several more questions about both of their pasts, but Hinata refused to give any names.

Deciding to leave on a happy note, Ako asked "By the way your holding his hand, it looks like you wouldn't mind if your name was Uzumaki Hinata, am I right?"

The blush on Hinata's face after Ako's comment couldn't have been redder if she were a rose. She stated to try to respond to that, but said nothing more than "B-b-b... N-no, I... w-we..."

"She's just teasing you Hinata." said Nobu as he and Kurou walked out. The latter mumbling something that sounded like "About time."

Looking out the window, Kiko could see that the storm had already overtaken them, and that the sun had just set behind the thick layer of black clouds. "Hinata," she said "if you want to, you can sleep in the spare bed in here. I'll tell the nurse."

"Okay, th-thank you." said a grateful Hinata. This would make it all the easier to escape.

"It's no problem." Kiko said as Ako guided Hinata over to the spare bed. "Now, were going to be back early tomorrow to check on you, but then were going back to that site. I trust you to take care of thing until were done there, then we'll be back." she said while pulling a small white card out of her back pocket and placing it in Hinata's hands "Here is my cell phone number if anything should happen. Get someone to call it for you. I might not be able to get any reception out there, but just leave a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"Okay." said Hinata sleepily. She had no idea what the woman was saying, but wouldn't matter soon, so she didn't pay it any mind.

"Good, now get some sleep." she said as both women walk out, then shut the door.

vvvvvvvvvvvvv

Like she said she would, Hinata waited. Something that she was proud of, fore the 'nurse' had checked on them several times in the past hour and nearly caught her out of the bed. After another hour, the storm outside increased in ferocity and created the perfect distraction for any shinobi escapee.

Throwing off her blanket, she rushed over to Naruto to do a more advanced diagnostic jutsu. Though this, she was able to come to the conclusion that Naruto didn't have enough chakra circulating through his system to stay conscious. It wasn't that he was out of chakra, just that it wasn't circulating.

Usually, a shinobi's body will train itself to pump chakra through its system to help take the edge off of the sever physical limits that body must surpass to be able to jump ten meters into the air, smash a boulder with a single punch, and so forth.

Once the body reaches these limits, the chakra is mandatory for the shinobi to live. If that chakra isn't available, then the body passes out to save itself from the stress of moving the reinforced muscles. A true testament to Rock Lee's physical make-up.

So it was a simple procedure of attaching his chakra to hers, and then leading it through the unconscious body to give it the rhythm it needs to know to flow on its own. It was one of the first thing any medic-nin learns in school. Three minutes after the diagnostic was made, Naruto was showing signs of moving.

Slowly, his eyes started to open. Thankfully, his eyes were dilated, so he was able to recognize Hinata instantly in the dark. "Hinata?" he asked slightly confused.

"Shh." she shushed him. "We have to get out of here."

vvvvvvvvvvvvv

Sorry that I can't answer your reviews, but I don't have enough time. Thank all of you that did though. Remember R&R.


	6. Compications

Hey guys, I'm sorry about the huge time gap between updates. I hit a brick wall, well, its more like a seven foot thick, concrete wall with steel reinforcements built into it. I also had several distractions over the last month (Death in the family, Mass Effect, school reports, introduction to X-Box Live, and the Dresden File book series). To get over the wall, I wrote the first two chapters of another fic called Herin. Check it out.

Because I haven't updated in so long, I decided to split this chapter in half. Tell me if I should make part two another chapter or edit it into this one when it's written. Anyways, I have gotten a lot of review for the last chapter. 61... Wow. Thats more that many 60,000 word fics. You guys kick ass, and don't let anyone tell you different.

P.S. - I apologize to Chronostorm. I'm sorry.

Chapter 4

Complications – Part 1

"If those damn kids don't show their faces in five minutes, I swear I'll kick both their asses when we do find them!" ranted Kurou for the eight time that night "Blind girl or not!"

"You said the same thing five minutes ago." said Nobu after taking a drink of the coffee he bought at the convenient store they just checked. "You keep canceling yourself out. Shut up for about ten minutes, and they'll probably come out."

"Just keep looking. I wanna get this over with as soon as possible." he muttered as he got into the little 'Rent-a-Car' they rented.

As soon as the group of four found a suitable motel with enough vacancies, they got a call from the hospital. The two kids they rescued went missing a little over two hours ago. The nurse claimed that when she walked in the room the two shared, she was knocked out. She woke up some time later and found them missing from their beds.

Now Kiko and Ako had forced them into helping them search by threating to expose some apparent blackmail they somehow acquired.

"They couldn't have gotten far." said Nobu as he sat in the drivers side of the car. He always ended up driving for some reason. "Call the girls. See if they've had any luck with the police." he commanded.

**RING (BUZZ)... RING (BUZZ)...**

"Well speak of the devil..." said Kurou as he dug the little phone out of his pocket. "Hello?" he asked as he held it to his ear. "Yeah, no luck here... Really? Where at?... By Who?... Are you serious?!... You mean 'hanging' hanging? Like from a rope?... Wait! You mean that their dead?!... All of them?!... Yeah, were on our way... Okay, see you then." he concluded as he snapped the cell phone shut.

"What happened?" asked Nobu, more than slightly intrigued.

"Go too the police station. They found someone that claims to have seen them." Kurou said with a grim look.

"Fine, but tell me what happened." he said as he turned the car around.

"Apparently, the cops found a couple of gang members. When the the cops got a call about some gun shots in the area, they found six people dead. One of them was hanging by a chain, and a couple other things like that. She didn't tell me much more besides that the only survivor claimed that the suspects matched the descriptions of the kids."

"They can't think that it was really them, can they?" he asked in shock.

"The cops do, and they want to ask us some questions too."

vvvvvvvvvvvvv

"Okay Hinata, I don't think anyones following us." said Naruto as they hit the wood-line on the outer edge of the large town. "Now, tell me what the hell's going on here!"

In the short time eh had been conscious, he had escaped an unknown facility, ran from no one, been ambushed by thugs – killed most of them -, and was nearly flattened by a... a... whatever the huge, honking thing was. And to top it all off, his jutsu were backfiring, and all this time, he had had no idea of why any of this was happening.

vvvvvvvvvvvvv Flashback vvvvvvvvvvvvv

"We have to get out of here." Whispered Hinata from beside his bed.

"Get out of where?" asked Naruto as he surveyed the small white room he had awoken in. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it's some kind of research facility." she said calmly "I'm not sure if it's Orochimaru's or not."

"Orochimaru?" now he was confused. It was all kind of blurry, but the last thing he could remember was tan explosion and Kyuubi screaming random obscenities at him.

"Yes, I-" started Hinata, but was cut off by a light shuffling coming from outside the door. Slowly, the door started to open to reveal a tired looking nurse. She was looking over a clipboard in her hand and not paying the slightest bit of attention to the occupants of the room.

On reflex, Hinata silently jabbed the unknowing nurse in the chest with a light palm-thrust. She dropped instantly to the ground. Quickly shutting the door, she stuffed the limp nurse into a corner by the heart monitor. "Come on, we can go out the window. I'll explain later." she whispered as she slid open the glass pane.

Slowly, Naruto slid out from under the blanket covering him. At first he was a little wobbly, but soon stabilized after taking several steps. As he made his way over to the window, he could see that he was two stories above the ground. Under the window, there were a series of bushes and wild plants that led out into the distant mountains. He watched as Hinata climbed outside, and leveled herself on the outside wall as easily as standing up.

As he climbed out the window sill, the little 'Something Bad Is About To Happen' feeling kick into overdrive. Cautiously, he stepped out onto the vertical wall and applied the same amount of chakra he always applied when wall-walking. He had done this exercise countless times throughout his missions, but this time was different. As he tried to push the chakra out, he was met with a stomach lurching, falling sensation.

For a entire two seconds, Naruto thought about why this reaction would occur. Surly he wasn't falling. There had to be a rational explanation as to why this sense was giving him the feel of vertigo. He had heard of enemies using genjutsu to create the feel of vertigo and force hidden enemies to literally fall out of the sky, but if that was true, then why was Hinata unaffected?

It was possible that he was just having a dizzy spell. This theory seemed more feasible due to his just waking up and having no idea as to where he was. If that was true, then it should have already passed, or not have taken place at all thanks to Kyuubi. But the falling sensation held strong, and was quickly replaced by a powerful, painful blow to the back. He couldn't breath or make since of which direction he was facing. But he hurt... bad.

"Naruto-kun!" he heard Hinata yell. Had someone kicked him in the back as he climbed out the window? Was that person attacking Hinata now? Naruto didn't know because his eyes were shut and hurt to much to open them.

Finally, he resolved himself to pry his left eye halfway open. For some reason, he was lying horizontal, and Hinata was running vertically towards him. Realization hit him like a brick. Uzumaki Naruto, the Killer of the Last Uchiha's, the Future Hokage, the Tamer of Kyuubi, Heir to the Sannin had fallen out a window under his own power.

"Are you okay?" Hinata asked in a quietly worried voice when she reached him.

"I've had worse... And better." he said with a toothy smile "But we have to keep moving and find out where we..." he trailed off when he noticed their states of dress. He was shirtless; this wasn't so bad, but what caused the lag in speech was the fact that Hinata was wearing nothing but hospital gown. While it wasn't a very revealing fashion, the right angle combined with the right wind while jumping from tree to tree might prove distracting. "...are." he finally said.

The little part of Naruto's brain that governed chivalry told him that he needed to find clothes. They could survive the trip back to Konoha with basic knowledge, but they couldn't if their only barrier against nature was a thin, plastic cloth gown. Plus, he didn't want to suddenly fall from trees due to excessive nose bleeds.

"Okay Hinata, heres the plan." he said while looking behind him to hide his blush. "Were going to poke around until we find what we need to get back to Konoha. Stay low, and don't take any unnecessary risks."

Cautiously, the two ran straight into the woods ahead and decided to circle around the building while giving it plenty of berth.

IOIOIOIOIOI...End of Part 1...IOIOIOIOIOIOI

(AN: Well, there's part of it. I'm sorry about any grammar problems. While your waiting for the other half to pop up, go read Herin. It's on my profile page under the list of the one I've written. Tell me what you think of it. It will be my secondary fic that I'll mainly use to get me out of writers block, but I've gotten a couple good reviews over it (three). Review, Review, Review!!!)


	7. Suspicions

Hey guys, here's part two. Majority voted to make this a second chapter. Because it's been spring break, I've been forced to work 75 hours this week in order to pay for a upcoming vacation, I haven't been able to write as much as I'd like to. It's funny; back before I started writing on a schedule, I would have hours of free time. Now I'm lucky to get in thirty minutes of writing a day. I might be posting the next chapter of Herin (my other fic) within the next couple minutes.

**EDIT:** I would also like to remind everyone that this is still in a flashback from last chapter.

(Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, any characters, locations, or concept, besides the original material in this story.)

Chapter 5

Suspicions – Part 2

As the two slowly traveled down the small dirt road they found, an awkward silence fell over them. The silence was due to the others clinging, thin clothing that left less than some to the imagination. While trying to put some distance between them and the 'hospital', they came upon a small creek bed. It wasn't deep, only four feet at the most, but it was cold and wet.

Not long after they both stepped on top of the water, roughly the speed of a falling objects decent, they found that Naruto couldn't call forth any chakra. As he first started to slide downwards, instincts told him to reach out and grab onto anything close to him for balance. Hinata was both within reaching distance and, in fact, a 'anything'. The result was that instead of one cold, soggy teenager; they had two cold, soggy, waterlogged, tired, confused, and highly irritable teenagers capable of killing entire crowds with a small gesture of their hands.

Trembling, the two walked in silence. Hinata was debating with herself to either say something or remain quite. If she were to start a conversation, it would inevitably lead back to the whole 'Why Can't We Be Together?' argument, but if she didn't say anything, she would never know what could have happened or how it could turn out. It was possible that in his wet state, he would become emotionally unhinged and open up to her. It could also mean that he could be pissed off and not want to talk about it.

If the later proved to be true, then it would be several proverbial steps back on her progress, but damn it, she was not going to give up!

Naruto's train of thought was somewhat different, but equally disturbing. Since the creek incident, he had been trying to contact the Kyuubi to yell at the fox for screwing up his chakra. There was no answer. He could feel the 'warmth' deep within his subconscious, but there was no life to it. It was like he was screaming at a bonfire. It was there, the raw power intact, just with no life. Until he had a chance to meditate and actually talk to the thing face to face, he new he'd be jutsu-less for a little while at least.

He had no problem facing an enemy head on without jutsu. All it took was some crafty planing and a well placed blow here and there. The problem was working with Hinata with this handicap. Like Tsunade said, Hinata was defensive in most of her jutsu, while he was mainly offensive. One was a sword and one was a shield. Now, they had a shield and a fist... a fist doesn't do good against bladed, armored opponents. If he were to fight one on one, he would just have to worry about himself and would have a chance of victory.

But with Hinata there, she would have to protect herself and him, while he could only hold off one opponent. There would be a marginal gap in power. Together, they were thrown out of balance.

"_If we're attacked, then it'll be my fault if she gets hurt."_ he thought. Even though he had predicted that the fox wouldn't throw in it's opinion, he was still disappointed when it didn't come._ "Maybe I should just tell her and get it over with. If she gets scared, then maybe she'll run off. If she's away from me, then she has a better chance of surviving."_

Again, there was no reply. It was weird, not having the Kyuubi in his head. He had grown accustom to the mountainous demon giving him sarcastic remarks and annoying him when it got bored. For every thought, there was a counter thought. It was balanced. It helped him think from every angle and side. It was disturbing; how quite his head was.

He was going to say "Hinata, I need to tell you something.", but he was interrupted by the clouds lighting up the sky, followed by a thunderous boom. Forgetting the previous statement, he settled for "Hinata, we have to find shelter before the storm hits"

"R-right." she said, slightly nervous. She wasn't scared of thunder storms, but the concept of being hunted in unknown territory when they hit did frighten her. Without another word, the two squishy teens started a light sprint down the small dirt road. With Naruto's chakra shorted out, he couldn't risk tree jumping. It was just to risky, and the thunder storm didn't help either.

vvvvvvvvvv

After a mile down the small road, they came across a house. From what they could tell, it was a two story house sitting on top of a small hill with other similar houses off to the side. Not far from it was a average size tree with a tire swing jumping up and down due to the high winds. If it wasn't for the violent storm that was about to erupt around them, it would have been a very beautiful sight.

Naruto and Hinata crouched down behind a hedge that ran along the edge of the yard and into the neighbors yards. "Is there anyone inside?" Naruto asked.

"You don't expect to s-steal from civilians, do you Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata with a shocked look.

"We have to get supplies somehow." he said with a shrug "We'll just take some clothes and other things that can be easily replaced. I'll even right down the address and ask the Old Hag if she'll send some compensation money, okay?"

"Okay, Naruto-kun." she said after a moment. Then activated her eyes. After several seconds, she said "There's nobody there."

"Alright, lets move." he said as he made his way towards the house.

With one jump, the two were on the balcony with a unlocked door. The moment the two crossed the threshold though, they knew something was wrong. They were standing in a bedroom, but only resembled one in its most basic of forms. There was a large bed, a night stand. That was the only thing bedroom-ish about it. The walls were covered in various plaques and awards that congratulated the owner for everything from climbing impossibly tall mountains, too a old picture of a guy running from a pack of bulls. In the corner, there was a big black box with a glossy front with a dull silver box sitting neatly on top.

While Hinata scanned the room, she had a distinct feeling that she was missing something. It was like there was a force trying to drawing her to a special area, but she was being pulled from all directions at the same time.

"Hinata," said Naruto as he walked out the door "I'm gonna check the rest of the house. You see what you can find around here."

"B-Be careful." she called quietly as she opened the closet door. The closet was a walk-in, but it was stuffed full of boxes. She could still get inside, but not without some difficulty. The house apparently belonged to a either old or short man, due to the size of the clothes inside. She could tell at first glance that none of his clothing would fit Naruto.

However, she was given hope for clothes when she discovered a box labeled 'Emi's Clothes'. Inside, she found a pair of pale denim jeans, a lavender colored undershirt, a white jacket, and everything that goes beneath. It was all a size to big, but thousands of times better that just the hospital gown. With a quick peek around the corner to make sure Naruto wasn't around, she slipped on the new clothes. But the feeling of being pulled in all directions still hadn't lessened any. She was about to find Naruto when she focused on a small picture laying face-up on the night stand.

It was a picture of a handsome young man, a beautiful woman, and a teenage girl Hinata's age. The man and woman each had a hand wrapped around the others waist and the farthest arm sitting on the shoulder of the teenage girl. On the back it read _'Yumi : 1497-1532'_ and below it, it said _'Emi : 1514 – 1532'_ . Hinata's eyes widened as she read the dates. Quickly, she spun around and stared at the wall full of achievements.

The picture fell to the ground as the tugging feeling went away.

vvvvvvvvvv

Naruto walked the dark halls of the house looking for clothes that fit and some food to eat. In his search, he came across a small black box with a small, flashing red light. Since Naruto is the Guru of Patience and Self-Control, he touched the blinking light.

A long beeping sound filled the air followed by a female voice declaring "You have one new message." then another beeping sound ensuing another female voice "Mr. Niagara, this is Rin. Will you call me when you get home from vacation? Thanks."

Naruto had to do everything in his power to stop from slamming his fist into the small box the moment the voices started speaking. "Naruto-kun?" he heard from behind him. He turned to see Hinata staring at him with a worried look.

"Hey," he said with a smile "you found some clothes! That's great. Oh, you have to come... see... this box..." he slowed down as he took in her expression "What is it?" he asked. Nothing good ever came from a look like that.

"What year is it?" she asked bluntly.

It's not every day that your asked what year it is. It's a simple enough question, but anytime someone asks something that easy, trouble isn't far off. "It's thirteen sixty-nine, isn't it?"

"That is what I thought, too. But," she told him of what she found upstairs.

"Fifteen thirty-two? Are you sure you read it right?" he asked.

"Yes. All of t-the papers on the wall have similar dates on them. The highest I found was at fifteen seventy-three."

"I bet it's some kind of military time code or something like that."

"But the person who lives here is a civilian."

"I don't know," Naruto said "maybe if we find anyone, we'll ask them and see what they say. We can figure it out then, but I doubt that-"

**BAM!**

**BAM!**

**BAM!**

**CRASH!**

On reflex, both Hinata and Naruto both jumped into a nearby room as the front door crashed to the floor and six men walked though.

"Okay," yelled the biggest "take everything you can carry and lets get the Hell out of here before the cops show up!"

(AN: Whawhoo! 5000 Hits... and only 73 reviews. Come on guys, if you want me to continue writing, then you have to give me encouragement. Before I started writing, I thought that authors were exaggerating how good it is to get a good review, but now I know its like a tiny orgasm every time I get one.

Also, about the dates, I don't want anyone complaining about them. This isn't 'our' world that they fell into. It's theirs. Their times, dates, history, future, everything. Most authors don't even give dates on their stories, so I did kinda go out on a branch here. But then again, thats kinda what I've been doing all along with my stories.

To all of you who did review, Thank You!)

_**REVIEW!**_


	8. Take Down

Well, I got some down time today, so I thought I'd start writing. After I started, I just couldn't stop. And before I knew it, I'd reached the perfect ending for this chapter. Just so you know, you guy's are going to think I'm one of the most cold hearted bastard on the face of this planet.

I know I complain about reviews too much, but there all so good to get. So keep reviewing. Since my last update two days ago, the hits of this story went from 5004 to 6172! As always, I want to thank all of you that do read and a special thanks to all those who review.

As you all may notice, my story doesn't always match up. That's because I'm constantly changing my mind on what to put and say, and I don't think things though before I write them down. The result is me having to think up complex and innovative ways to connect my stories. A good example is in one of my earlier chapters, I state the word 'chain', but in this one, it changes to 'belt'. You'll know when you get there, but I'm going to try to edit them together eventually.

One last thing, I forgot to add a reminder on the last chapter about it still being in the flashback from chapter 5. I went back and edited it, but I just wanted to apologize.

(Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, any characters, locations, or concepts besides the original material in this story.)

Chapter 6

Take Down

"Okay," yelled the biggest "take everything you can carry and lets get the Hell out of here before the cops show up!"

With that said, the other five started rummaging around the house grabbing valuables off of whatever surface they may be sitting on. The biggest one, Taichi written in red across the back of his leather jacket, grabbed the scrawniest man running around by the hood of his long black jacket.

"You," Taichi commanded "your the newest prick here, right?"

"Y-yeah, boss." he said nervously.

"Okay, then it's your job to get the gas can and wet down the place, got it skinny?"

"S-sure thing, Boss!" he said as he hurried out the front door.

"Alright," bellowed the 'Boss' through the house "this damn place is going up in flames in five minutes! Get your asses in gear!"

Hinata gasped when she heard him and was about to physically stop him when Naruto planted a hand on her shoulder. "Lets go," he whispered "these guys'll cover our tracks for us." He may not be the brightest when it comes to everyday life, but there was a reason that he had the potential to become Hokage. He was shinobi, and a damn good one when the situation called for it. Opportunities like this don't happen on every mission. Not only were they able to take some clothes from the house, but all the evidence that they were even there was going to point to these guys.

"But, Naruto-kun," she protested "the man that lives here has already lost his wife and daughter. We can't let them take his house too!"

He took this in for a second. Naruto knew what it was like to have no family, and to come home to a destroyed house. "Fine, but don't take any unnecessary risks, got it?"

"Yes." she said, and they were off. Naruto had the first dead within the first ten seconds. The man was digging around inside a closet; All Naruto did was grab a leather belt hanging by a hanger, make a loop, slip it around the unsuspecting mans neck, then around the clothing rack. With a quick tug downward and the closing of a door, the man was dead and hidden.

The second to die was trying to pull a expensive looking painting off the wall. The bottom of the picture was easily nine foot off the ground, so the unsuspecting man had moved a armchair under it and standing on the extreme top of it to reach the painting. With a simple tap to the ankle, Hinata had severed the main tendon and sent the man tumbling. His throat was closed off before he could manage the initial breath he needed to scream.

Technically, the third man killed himself when he found that the room he was currently inhabiting spontaneously combusted at some point in the past two seconds. For some reason or another, he thought that there was a open window where there clearly was a solid wall. The man ran head first into it and broke his neck instantly. Hinata casually walked out of the flame-free room seconds later.

vvvvvvvvvvv

The scrawny man came back into the house carrying a orange, five gallon jug. "Hey Kenta," he called when he saw his friend sitting on the couch with a far off look "do ya know where the boss is?" there was no answer from Kenta "Yo, Kenta!" he shouted with a bored look "Nap times over!" he said as he lightly slapped his cheek. Kenta slowly slumped forward; a rusty nail was sticking out of the area where the neck meets the spine.

"Whaa!" he screamed as he was driven into hysterics "B-B-Bosss!" he yelled as he half, ran half crawled towards the door.

Then he heard a bone chilling scream that originated from a normally deep voice, followed by a loud...

**BANG! (Flash)**

**BANG! (Flash)**

**BANG! (Flash)**

On the hallway wall, he could see the shadow of his boss with each flash. In each scene, he watched two small shadows descend on top of the large man, followed by silence. Then, he heard foot steps. They came closer and closer. He was going to die.

When he cracked open his eyes, he was met with the sight of big, black boots a meter from his face. He knew those boot. When he raised his head, standing before him was Taichi. And he looked pissed. "What was your name again?" he asked.

"Sh-Shin, sir." he stuttered "Kenta, he's dead Boss!"

"I know, I know. It's a real shame." he slightly bowed his head "Oh, what's the date?"

"The date? You mean like, what day it is?"

"Yeah, as soon as you tell me, we can get the heck out of here." he said with a encouraging smile.

"I think it's the... the..." something didn't seem right about the boss. In the entire four months Shin served under him, he had never heard of the man passing up a chance to curse. That, and Taichi never once asked anyone for their name before. As far as he was concerned, they were all worthless and under him. Realization dawned on him "You!" he pointed "Your not the Boss!"

Some laughter called his attention back towards the hallway as a tall teen, dressed in pea-green pants that were covered in blood, turned the corner. He wasn't much older and shared roughly the same figure Shin was, but Shin was pretty sure that he could never wear what this other guy was and still look that intimidating. "Hinata," the other man said through his laugh "you really need to work on your acting."

"I'm sorry," said a female voice. When he tracked the voice, he found a young woman in place of where his gargantuan boss once stood. She was blushing intensely "I-I just don't like to curse, that's all."

"It's okay." said the blond as he turned back to Shin and said "Now, are you gonna answer the lady's question?"

"What do you want!" screamed Shin, reverting back into hysterics.

"Just the date," the blond boy said again "and we'd also like to know what size clothes you wear."

vvvvvvvvvvv End Flash Back vvvvvvvvvvv

"Okay Hinata, I don't think anyones following us." said Naruto as they hit the wood-line on the outer edge of the large yard. "Now, tell me what the hell's going on here!"

"I'm really not s-sure, Naruto-kun." said Hinata. "But I think we should get back to Konoha v-very soon. I have a bad feeling about all of this."

"Yeah, me too. And that Shin guy, he didn't seem like he was in much of the right state of mind to lie about the date. It kinda has me worried."

"Do you think it was okay to leave him alive?" asked Hinata "It's not like I w-wanted to kill him or anything, but is it safe?"

Looking behind him, he could see flashing red and blue lights brightening the sky. "I don't know, but he told us what we wanted and he couldn't really defend himself. Plus, he gave me his clothes at a discount." he said while straighting his new/used black jacket over his dark green shirt. His pants were dark denim jeans.

Hinata giggled at that. "Lets leave before we have to kill anyone else. Konoha should be this way." she pointed.

"Yeah," he said after several seconds. When they got home, it was time to talk to Hinata about both 'him' and 'them'. "lets get going."

vvvvvvvvvvv

Yuki, Kiko and Ako's boss, was tired. At nine o'clock, he was walking out of his office to go home, when he had gotten a call from Kiko that made him go back and start filing more paperwork. He had to call home and wish his daughter a 'happy birthday' and bid his wife a 'good night' over the phone. Not ten minutes after he had filed the new paperwork, he had gotten a call. The president of HARC's representative was coming to meet him tonight.

It was just nearing midnight when the representative knocked on his door. "Come in!" he called with fake enthusiasm from behind his desk.

A old man walked through the doors. He looked to be in his late seventies or early eighties. He had a full head of milk white hair that was pulled into a rigid ponytail with his bangs parted on either side of his face. He had thin, round glasses on and was wearing a black trench coat that overtook his entire body. The strangest part of the old man was his posture. He was standing straight up, as if he were still in his prime. "Hello," said the man as he pushed up his glasses with his middle finger "my name is Yakushi Kabuto. I come as a representative of the president of HARC."

"Oh," said Yuki, completely partaken by surprise "and what way may I be of service."

"Well," he said "recently, two of your employee's have found two young kids at a excavation site. My employer would very much like to talk to them."

"Is that so?" said Yuki. Something about this man didn't sit well with him. He didn't trust this Kabuto person as far a he could throw him. "Well, I will call the one's responsible for finding them early tomorrow morning. We will then work out all the details and see what we can work out. But I doubt they will be able to drag two kids here without their parents consent."

"You see," Kabuto said "that won't work. Get them here now." he suggested, his glassy eyes hardening.

Alarms started sounding inside Yuki's head that told him to leave. Now. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that. Now, if you don't mind, I must take my leave." he said as he stood up.

"I'm sorry we couldn't come to a more peaceful resolution, but you leave me no choice." said the old man as he too stood up. With a quick hand gesture, Kabuto's hand started glowing as he swiped it inches from Yuki's throat.

As Yuki fell to his knee's, he stared at the picture of his just-turned-twelve daughter hugging his wife. His eyes closed, visions of happy memories involving the two passed before his eyes.


	9. Confusion and Affection

(Hey guys, I'm back for the next installment. This chapter was a seven way split in the story, which means that it could have taken any one of seven different paths. Which is why it took so long to write.

I don't have much more to say other than the fact that almost all reviews for the last chapter contained the line "Why won't the Snake Bastard die!!" or something along those lines. I laughed.)

(Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, any related characters, locations, or concepts.)

Chapter 7

Confusion and Affection

"Damn those kids." mumbled Kurou followed by a short sip from the small paper cup of water.

"Damn those cops." mumbled Ako as she followed Kurou's example. Just the thought of their endless questions was enough to make her blood boil.

"Damn all coffee shops that only stay open twenty hours a day." mumbled Kiko as she rubbed the bridge of her nose in an attempt to ward of her weariness.

"Here, here!" the other two cheered mournfully, holding up their cheap cones of water-filled paper half-heartedly.

The three were sitting in a little waiting room near the entrance of the police station, waiting for Nobu to come out of the small interrogation chamber they had each visited earlier that night... or was it this morning? The little ticking clock hanging on the pea-green, windowless walls said that it was five in the morning.

They were aloud to leave, but there wasn't anywhere they could go alone while Nobu was still being questioned. While Nobu and Kurou had rented a car, Kiko and Ako had went out on foot. Meaning that they only had one vehicle to travel around in, until they either rented another one or gave up on their search. Ever since Kiko had gotten the call from Yuki an hour ago, who told the four to find the missing kids or they would lose their current paychecks and any farther employment opportunities from HARC, giving up was not an option.

"I just don't get it." said Ako as she stared into her cup.

"Get what?" asked Kiko.

"Yuki," said Ako with emphasis "he threatened to fire us."

"It is kinda late." said Kiko, only to hear a sarcastic grunt from Kurou "Okay, its really late... or early; however you want to look at it. The point is that Yuki could be stressed or something, and we just pushed him over the edge, thats all."

"But I don't see what could have made him mad at us."'

"We'll worry about that later, right now we have to find those two. Did the police say anything about the suspects to you guys?"

When the other two opened their mouths to answer, so did the only door to the room. In walked Nobu with two officers following several paces behind. The cop on the left was wider than a healthy man, and barely taller than a dwarf. The other was tall, slim, and looked like he hadn't shaved in several days. The waiting three stood up to meet the others when the cops started talking.

"Okay," said Mr. Scruffy Chin "you four are free to go, but I advise against searching for those two runaways."

"Why?" asked Kiko.

"Besides the fact that they are wanted for multiple cases of homicide?" asked Scruff McGruff's partner sarcastically, only to get scolded by the taller cop.

"That hasn't been confirmed," reassured the scruffy cop "but its still possible."

"The boy, maybe," said Kiko "but not the girl. She didn't seem like the violent type."

The tall cop rubbed the back of neck in a nervous manner before saying "Our witness claimed that he left the house for a minutes, at the most, and came back to find all of his buddies dead."

"Theres no way one man could take out six full grown men in that time, without a gun or knife." said the big one.

"How did they die, then?" asked Nobu "I was told they all had their necks broken in one fashion or another."

"Thats hard to explain..." trailed off Scruffy "The cause of death is unknown for several of them, but cases like these usually have extenuating circumstances that make it hard to piece together."

"Like what?" asked Ako.

"Why they were in the house to begin with? What motive did they have for killing them? Was it gang related, or just coincidence? How they killed them, what order they killed them in, and other things like that."

"Oh, and their identities." said the chubby cop "Those would be nice to know, too."

"But we told you their names." said Kiko, confused.

"Oh, those turned up blank. Not a single Uzumaki Naruto or Hinata, under the age of thirty, in the database."

"And your sure the descriptions matched?" asked Nobu.

The big cop pulled a sheet of paper out of a folder he had been keeping under his arm and read off "Male: roughly six feet tall with blond hair and blue eyes. Female: Standing at five, four with dark hair..."

"That can be any number of people." said Ako quickly, cutting the cop off..

The cop continued to read as if there had been no interruption "Defining characteristics include three horizontal slash marks running across each side of the males face, and the female's eyes were white, with light purple centers." he finished pointedly.

"Oh..." trailed off Ako. Before she could say anything else, Kiko's phone started to ring.

"Hello?" Kiko asked as she held it to her ear "Oh, Yuki... but I...why there?... Okay, but you don't have to get snappy about it!" she yelled as she snapped the phone shut.

"What's going on?" asked Nobu and Ako at the same time.

"Yuki said we have to go to Konoha."

"But whats with the sparks flashing between you two?" Ako asked, referring to the one-sided argument.

"I don't know, but for some reason, he's being a jerk tonight."

"Like I said earlier; he's probably just stressed."

"But why Konoha?" asked Kurou.

"I don't know," said Kiko "he just said to go there and look around. But he wants us there by noon tomorrow."

"Damn it!" yelled Kurou.

"Looks like we get no sleep tonight." stated Nobu, then turned to the cops and asked "Are we done here?"

"Yeah," said Scruffy as he scratched his chin "we need to get going also. Good luck, but stay away from those two. If you get involved, then you could get arrested for interfering with police business." he warned as the two walked out the door.

vvvvvvvvvvvv

After they discovered that they wouldn't die if they tried to cross the strange, black stone trails that looked as if they extended for miles in either direction, travel went smoothly. But with every one that they passed, the more concerned they grew. Something was different, it could be felt in the air. It was like it was stagnant; almost impure. The wind was supposed to be wild and free. Now it was still and added pressure to the body. The streams they stopped at all tasted bland with a hint of a metallic edge to it.

It was nearing dusk when the two decided to make camp. Naruto and Hinata had been traveling for nearly twenty hours straight before they found the cave. It wasn't a cave in a traditional sense, just a large, flat, gray rock that jutted out of the ground over two meter depression in the earth. Though a fire food were both a necessity, little more effort was exerted to make the camp inhabitable.

"Ya know what?" asked Naruto as he pulled the his dead rabbit out of the fire "Rabbits are a lot harder to catch when you don't have chakra to use." After Naruto spent twenty minutes tracking the now-dead rabbit, he had spent the better part of an hour trying to catch it. He didn't feel the slightest bit of remorse for the poor thing as he pulled the skin from it's body.

"I would think so." agreed Hinata as she nibbled at the leg of her rabbit. She had cleverly avoided the conversation that would tell Naruto how she caught hers, with a simple snare and no Byakugan, within ten minutes. Rabbit hunting made a way to distract her from her problems, but now it was time to say what she needed to say. It wouldn't be long till they made it back home, and Naruto was offered all the marriage proposals.

Naruto had estimated that they were four hours away from Konoha on a gut instinct. If they got up at Five in the morning, then they should arrive at Nine AM. Thanks to past experiences, he multiplied that estimation by three and said, with confidence, that if they left at Five AM, they would be in Konoha by Five PM.

The two shinobi's sat next two one another as they talked about random subjects for several minutes, but it inevitably fell into a awkward silence. _"It's now or never!"_ thought Hinata "N-Naruto?"

Hearing her stutter his name once again brought on a small, dull ache to no particular part of his body, but it still hurt somewhere. He knew from the start of the awkward moment that it would lead to this. "What'cha need?" he asked. It was meant to sound confident. It was a tone that was meant to give hope. But it sounded unsure and false.

"Well, s-since the mission was a trap," she said while looking into the surrounding trees "I-I was wondering if... if maybe... if you would mind talking about..." she trailed off again due to a loss of words.

"Oh," said Naruto calmly, then said "THAT!" with dreaded enthusiasm.

"Yes, but if it makes you uncomfortable, I can wait."

"But your still going to want a answer when we get back, aren't you?"

"Yes," she said "I feel bad that I'm putting you in this position, but at the same time, I don't feel sorry about it in the least."

"I guess you've wanted this for a while, huh?"

"I think that I suspected I was in l-love with you after we graduated from the academy. I knew that I was after our first Chunin exam."

"That long?" Naruto asked in shock.

She just nodded her head and said with a soft smile "Do you remember? It was right before your match with Neji."

"At the training field." It was a statement, not a questioned. "You told me I was a proud failure."

"Only now," she said with a bit more excitement showing in her tears "your not a failure! You proved that to everyone when you changed Neji, and Tsunade, and Gaara! Lee wouldn't be walking without you, Kiba focus's more on his training and less on showing off now, and Shino talks a lot more now that he's spent some time around you! You have the ability to change people for the better" she finished when she whispered "And you make me feel like I'm worth something."

"I..." trailed of Naruto in a solemn tone "I don't think that we could ever... There are things about me that you don't know about."

"I don't care, can't you understand that?" she nearly cried "It's not important to me!"

"Then what is?" asked Naruto, the built-up emotions surfacing.

"I... I don't know! All I do know is that I want to be with you! To be next to you!"

"I don't understand why, though!"

"I don't know either," she said as her voice died down to a fraction below normal speaking volume "I've never felt this way about anyone else."

"DAMN IT!" yelled Naruto in anger as he stood up "I'm going for a walk!"

Before Hinata could say anything more, he had disappeared into the tree line. Emotions overwhelmed Hinata as she slumped over to rest her forehead on her knees while tears feel endlessly from her eyes.

After several minutes of this, she heard a shuffling of leaves behind her. When she turned her head in the sounds direction, she found a large, red fox staring at her from inside a bush. Then much to Hinata's surprise, it talked.

"Don't worry about him," the fox said "he's just confused." With that said, the fox lightly jumped out of the bushes and trotted over to eat the rest of Naruto's dropped rabbit.

Hinata stared at the strange fox for several moments before she figured out what was wrong with the sight before her. "Y-you have two tails!" she gasped.

vvvvvvvvvvvv

(AN: HA HA HA! Gotcha in a cliffhanger! I just keep adding twists here and there, huh? Tell me what you think about this chapter. Oh, and I'm kinda paranoid about the format I publish my chapters in. If there are any complaints, please tell me so that I can fix them.)


	10. Fox

(Slowly peaks around the corner with a white flag in his hand) Hey guys, (Dodges a thrown pineapple) I'd like to apologize for my slight disappearance. A month ago, I learned that when your computer tells you **"WARNING: FAILURE IS IMMINANTE!!"**, then that means to get your computer checked out right away. So, after my computer blew up, I went out to a Pawn Shop and found a sparkling new one. After twenty minutes of checking it out to see if it works, I bought it. When I hooked it up to the Internet though, a big red screen popped up and said that it had been deactivated due to its theft several days prior. So my computer was arrested.

But now I'm backed up with ideas for this story which hopefully means that I'll be updating more frequently. Its short, but more is on its way...

Chapter 8

Fox

"Y-you have two tails!" Hinata gasped as she covertly wiped the tears from her eyes.

The accused fox gave a proud flick of both tails and said "I always suspected you'd be smarter than that brat. Now I'm sure of it."

"W-what brat?" asked Hinata as she silently compared the medical costs of removing a brain tumor to the pay check she would receive from this mission. Maybe Tsunade would do it for free, because Hinata was fairly sure she needed one removed right about now.

"The Brat, the Kit, the Idiot, Dunce, Demon, Uzumaki; He has just about as many names as I do." said the fox smugly.

"Um..." said Hinata nervously "Please don't make fun of Naruto. He tries very hard."

"I know," the fox sighed before tearing a leg of the cooked bunny.

A minute passed as Hinata watched it devour the meal. Finally, when it was finished, the fox looked at Hinata and asked "Your confused right now, aren't you?"

"A little... Yes." she lied. Hinata actually knew exactly what was going on. The built up stress combined with the explosion and confessions caused her mind to recede into a mild delirium resulting in this hallucination.

"Then allow me to explain," said the fox as it took a seat opposite of Hinata "but after I do, I need to talk to the Brat and you about something important, got it?"

"Y-yes." answered Hinata reluctantly.

"Alright, to start off, I'll tell you my connection with the Brat."

* * *

"This is almost too good!" whispered Ako from the passenger seat. In her hands, she held a small Polaroid picture.

"Your realize that they'll kill both of us, don't you?" asked Nobu while flying the helicopter and looking at his own little photo. "Just to get rid of the witnesses."

"I've always told myself that I'll die with a smile," she said though her giggles "and you can bet I'll be smiling when I show her this!" she finished while waving the picture around. On Ako's picture, it showed Kurou asleep in the back seat and Kiko's head laying face down on his lap. She had fallen asleep and fell into the Kurou with her feet curled up on the seat beside her.

Meanwhile, Kurou had slumped over to the side and was lying on Kiko's ass with an arm wrapped around her waist. This is what Nobu's picture consisted of.

If one were to put the two pictures together, it would be obvious that they had just fallen asleep and be worth little in the black mail department. But apart, they looked to be incriminating evidence that equaled a virtual million if the owner threatened to show the other party.

"These are gonna be worthless if the two wake up in that position." pointed out Nobu.

"Just be sure to land softly and we'll move them into a more... dignified pose then." suggested Ako as she took the last sip of her abnormal sized thermos of coffee.

* * *

The sun was halfway set when the helicopter softly touched down in Kuro, a small village that bordered the marsh containing the sunken remains of Konaha. Despite the outward appearance, which could pass as a upper third world country, the small town had kept a mildly rich economy due to the ease of which Konoha artifacts were found. The surrounding swamplands, including the ruins, all belong to Kuro; so all archaeologists must check into the town before they enter and before they leave.

Ten years back, the Mayor of Kuro issued a decree which forced all visitors to pay a fee equivalent to the weight gained during the expeditions. Needless to say, the town made quite a bit of money very fast. The only reason it stayed in bad shape was due to the remote location.

After some gentle repositioning, the four prepared the jeep that would take them through the dense trees and swamps to their destination.

"What do you guys think we should bring?" asked Kurou while taking inventory of their supplies.

"Besides basic camping equipment, I have no idea." said Kiko from beside him. "Yuki didn't specify what we're going to do there."

"So it's a standard raid?" wondered Ako, while hitting a flashlight on the dirt ground in order to intimidate it into lighting up "Just plunder anything we can find?"

"Looks like it." agreed Nobu "Maybe he wants us to find something like Tsunade's desk. It would probably lift him out of his pissy mood."

"Well, whatever the reason, I want to get this expedition over with." complained Kurou "There's still that site that we left because of those damn kids, and I want my cut of it!"

"It was there for several hundred years," lectured Nobu "and it will still be waiting there when we finish up here."

"Speaking of kids," chimed in Kiko "I wonder what happened to those two."

"There probably breaking into my house and stilling all my shit." grumbled Kurou under his breath.

Labeling the flashlight as useless, Ako tossed it over her shoulder into the back of the jeep. "Come on guys," she urged "lets get going. I don't have to drive this time and I'd like to get some sleep before we have to set up camp."

"Stop complaining," said Kiko while rubbing the back of her neck "it felt like I slept on a rock the whole ride here."

The laugh that she tried to stop busted through her mouth like a freight train. Between breaths, Ako finally gasped "I... I'll... get the jeep... weighted!"

With a glance behind her, Kiko decided that Ako wasn't laughing at what she had said, but instead laughing at Nobu. Due to the fact that he had tripped behind her and fell into a pile of what appeared to be horse manure.

(AN: I'm sorry about the shortness, but this is what I had written before my computer went down. Please _**Review**_!!)


	11. Forlorn Beloved

Curtains part over a stage as a drum roll plays.

I stick my head out from around the corner

"Hey guys, remember meAHH!" I scream as and ax embeds itself where me head was. "WHAT THE HELL?! Last time you guys through a pineapple!" I scream from beside the stage.

"THE PINAPPLES GOT ROTTEN THREE MONTHS AGO!" comes a yell from the crowd.

"Let me explain, please!" I plead.

A brave cricket dares to chirp

"Well, you see, at the beginning of July, I was in a pretty bad car crash. It messed my arms up pretty bad. After a while of healing and **(explicit language warning) **FUCKING physical therapy, my God I hate that shit, I was finally able to work again. Sadly, I was in the red when it came to money. So now, I'm working two jobs. I finished this chapter a while ago, but there were some problems with the whole 'Beta' thing. In no way am I blaming them, but after they edited this chapter, Yahoo apparently went down and I didn't get their copies after they sent them. So I waited... and waited... and waited...

So, here it is. The eleventh chapter of Reflections/Illusions. Because I'm Story-A.D.D, I'm working on a third story. (I know. I'm having trouble keeping up with two stories, but this one popped into my head, and I just had to do it.) It is MAJOR AU, but it does incorporate almost all characters. Its called _'A Tale of Dusk and Dawn'_. Keep an eye out for it, or put me on author alert... Favorite Author works even better, though :)

Chapter 9

Forlorn Beloved

The forest valley underlooking the cliff wall glowed beneath the half-covered moon. The dark clouds that had blocked the sky now pushed onto the distant horizon, leaving only small wisps to drift before the moon. On the edge of the cliff sat Naruto. His face deep in conversation.

After his little dispute with Hinata, he had run away. It wasn't the most masculine or noble thing to do, but it gave him more time to think. But, just like before, thinking wasn't helping any. During his aimless wondering, he had come across the large cliff. Finding it to be a quite and relaxing place, he decided that it would be the best place to rest and think.

Thinking seemed to be the only thing that ever occupied his time, nowadays. But with every potentially helpful thought that jumped up, anxiety pushed it into the large, tangled mass that seemingly never ended. Throughout the years, relentless hardships and forlorn hope had taught him nearly everything he had needed to know about life; stealing is not a crime when on the verge of starvation, a smile doesn't always mean something good, and the price is always more that the reward is worth.

But as soon as he believed that he knew everything about the world and could secure a safe place for himself, the world proved to him that he knew nothing. He was shown that friends change things. They could hurt him in ways that no stranger could ever manage, then he learned that if he guided his friends, they could not hurt him or each other.

For the past six years, he had committed himself to showing all of his friends the light, in hopes that they could never hurt the ones they loved. During this time, he learned all he could about them. Just when he was starting to think he was incapable of hurting or being hurt by them, Hinata tells him that he had been all but torturing her the entire time. Once again, the world proved to Naruto how little he truly knew about life.

"_Hinata."_ Naruto mentally sighed. Usually, the Fox would pop up and add it's input on the situation. Though the input would normally be a snide remark or demoralizing comment. But now it either didn't have anything to say, or worse...

Deming that thought as impossible, Naruto moved on to more urgent matters. Since the 'Hinata Incident', he so dubbly named, didn't seem to bare anything positive, he switched to the 'Somethings Not Right' feeling that he has been on the edge of his consciousness for the past day. Everything from the mysterious red and blue lights that lit up the sky in front of the house that they had broken into, to the strange black rock roads that they had crossed, to the overall feeling of the surroundings. Everything just seemed either wrong or tainted now.

The trees looked less vibrant, the water tasted like lead, and the air seemed hazier. It was as if they were running upwind, towards a fire miles away. This thought only served to make Naruto more anxious to get back to the village.

"Its beautiful, isn't it?" said a female voice from beside him.

The reason he didn't fall off of the edge was due to the fact that the sudden appearance, along with the owner of the voice, had forced every muscle in his body to stiffen up to the point of complete immobility. He missed having chakra heightened senses.

After the two second pause of his heart had passed, he turned his head to find Hinata casually sitting not four feet away. Her feet dangling over the side like his and a serene look on her face. In the moonlight, her pale skin almost glowed.

The sight left Naruto speechless for a several seconds. "Uh, yeah." he answered hesitantly.

As she turned away from the forest valley, her expression changed from a look of content to a look of questioning. "Am I a horrible person, Naruto?"

This question took him by surprise. "N-no, not at all. Why are you asking?" He should have been the one to ask that.

"Well, just yesterday, I killed several people."

"I killed some of them, too. That doesn't make me a bad person. Its just part of shinobi life."

"But did you feel any remorse?" she asked, looking back at the forest.

"Remorse? Like, if I regret doing it?"

"Yes. If you could go back and change the past, would you?"

"Probably not. I mean, those people were bad men, Hinata. They did even worse things to innocent people. We can't always be the good guys. Look at the Third; he was one of the kindest old men that I've ever met. But I know of at least four different times when he ordered for the destruction of smaller shinobi villages. Those villages didn't just have military personal. They had civilians; men, women, and children. They were just as innocent as anyone in the Leaf, and just wanted to make a living." He remembered how mad he had been when he had learned about the bloody history of Konaha from Tsunade.

"But, you know what?" he asked, not waiting for a reply "I know that those smaller villages were sending shinobi out to raid other places. Like I said, we can't all be good guys, and I don't feel the slightest bit ashamed of what I've done or any of the Hokage's for what they've done to make our village survive. We may strive for peace, but that doesn't mean that were above a bit of bloodshed to make it happen. We all have to make sacrifices, even if it's on a moral level."

"Then, your not ashamed of what any of the Kage's have done?" she asked, almost with an ulterior motive in her voice.

"Not in the least." he answered proudly. He was mentally congratulating himself for breaking the tension between them.

When she turned to him, she wore a look of complete aggravation as she climbed to her feet. "Then why didn't you tell me about the Kyuubi!?" she asked, her tone tone and eyes furious.

Naruto's stomach dropped and his eyes widened.

"Did you think that all of your friends would abandon you because of it!?"

"W-when did you-" he started in surprise, but was cut off.

"Am I so vile, that you think that I would judge you based on one fact!?"

As quick as he could, Naruto scrambled to his feet, determined to get as far away as he could. Before he could reach the tree line, not two meters away from the edge, Hinata appeared in front of him.

Grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, she pinned him against a nearby tree. "Am I so dreadful to be around, that you would rather be alone for the rest of your life, rather than tell me about it!? Tell me Naruto, am I that despicable!?"

"N-no, but I-" he tried to answer, while struggling against her hold.

"Then why." she demanded. Her voice dropping to near its normal level.

"Because, I didn't want you to be hate of me." he admitted, moving his eyes away from hers with shame.

"Hate you? Naruto, I love you." she confessed. For the second time in her life, she leaned forward and kissed Naruto. It wasn't deep, only lasting a second, but this time, Naruto didn't resist.

For the second time in hisday, Naruto felt as though his heart had stopped and for the first time, the burden of the Kyuubi seemed significantly less.

He wasn't the type of person to completely forget about priorities like he once had been, but surrounded by moonlight with Hinata, everything else was pushed to the back of his mind. _"I don't think I'm in love, but I do know that I care for her."_

Realizing their position, Hinata quickly backed away from the tree, letting Naruto loose. A large blush now decorated both of their faces.

"Hinata, I don't feel the same way as you," he started.

He watched as tears were beginning to build in her eyes with each word he said.

"but I _do_ feel something. So I'm not gonna push you away again." he finished.

"Does this mean..." she trailed off, brushing the water from one eye.

"Yeah," he smiled, not the usual blinding smile, but a honest, heartwarming smile.

Almost instantly, Hinata jumped forward and buried here face into the crook of his neck. Through the irony, Naruto was the one feeling uncomfortable with Hinata being so affectionate. Sure, he had accepted her and would admit to being more that a little attracted to her now, but this was getting to be a little too much, too quick.

"Uh, Hinata?" he asked. A blush heavily painted on his face.

"Hmm?" Hinata half hummed, half asked from her blissful perspective.

He didn't want to spoil the mood, but some things just had to be known. "How exactly did you find out about the... uh, Kyuubi?" Even with Jiraiya, he had never been one to speak casually about the thing.

"Oh," she remembered, backing away from him slightly, though still within his personal space "well... just follow me." Grabbing his forearm, she lead him back to the camp.

Never in her life had she ever felt as happy as she did at that moment.

"What the Hell!" yelled Naruto when they arrived at the campfire. Much to Hinata's displeasure, he had taken his arm back.

By the fire, sat a familiar looking fox, casually chewing on the thigh bone of the rabbit Naruto had worked so hard to catch.

"Its been a while." commented the fox, its speech unhindered by the bone in its mouth. "Sit down and shut up. I have some things to tell you two and I'm not in the mood to deal with your complaining, brat."

Usually, when the single most powerful creature in existence commands a person to do something, the person can't help but obey, be it because of fear or respect. But Naruto was unusually stubborn for a human and had developed a strange immunity to all commands issued by all-powerful beings.

"No! Tell me why your not in the damn seal!" he yelled, pointing to his gut. "Tell me why I can't use any chakra! This is your fault, I know it is!"

"Good bye." stated the fox simple, as it stood up and turned face.

"Wait." called Hinata, who had taken a seat on her previous log. "Were just confused." she explained "We don't mean any disrespect."

"_You_ don't mean any disrespect," the fox said pointedly "_He_ couldn't care less. But since this does effect me, I'll tell you. Your chakra is dependent on me. Without me there, you'll have to completely relearn how to use it. Simple as that."

"Is that all?" snapped Naruto.

"Nope, and this one's the kicker." grinned the fox "Everyone you've known," it paused, maybe for dramatic effect, maybe because it was only paying half attention to the conversation "is dead."

"WHAT!?" "How?" came the combined yell from both humans.

"I'm not sure on the specifics, but if I remember right, the snake-human, Orochimaru did it." Kyuubi said. Its tone not hinting towards any emotion.

"How did they die!?" screamed Naruto. The usual heat and feral-fury that accompanied his anger not arising.

"Well, dieing is probably the wrong term." mussed the fox "Its more like absorbed... Yeah, thats the right word. Absorbed by Orochimaru."

"W-why?" asked Hinata in desperation.

"His ambition. He absorbed their bodies, converted them into life energy, and added it to himself."

"When? We were just in Konaha a few days ago!" asked Naruto through gritted teeth, his temper flaring. The only reason he was still sitting and not snake hunting was the need for more information. Years of lethal missions had pounded the importance of information into his head.

"About five-hundred years back." said the fox in an off-handed tone.

"Five-hundre-" Naruto started.

"Will you stop with the echo already, its getting very annoying! I'll explain it all in time!" yelled the fox. "Now, be quite so I can try to remember everything, its been a while, and I've a lot to tell you." the fox was quite for several excruciating seconds. "Ah yes, I remember it all now. That room you activated to escape that explosion was a prototype seal designed by Orochimaru to convert chakra into life energy. Fortunately for you two, all it did was take you out of the flow of time, only to bring you back when the seal was broken.

"But," continued the fox "one of the first rules of sealing is that you can't seal a solid object that is already sealed. Though I'm unaffected by time, I'm still bound to it, unlike you humans. Usually, the second seal would have just failed, but due to the unique nature of both seals, the second seal separated us. Sadly, this just separated my being, not my chakra or tails. When you disappeared, I appeared in your place with almost no chakra and only one tail. Since then, I've been hiding out and slowly building back my power."

"But what about Konaha?" Hinata asked, much to the foxes annoyance.

"Well," said the fox, his voice with an edge "the humans were having this big argument over something, which gave one of Orochimaru's spies a chance to draw out a large scale seal all throughout the area. It was a completed version of the seal that you two were captured in, and caught all of them in one move. Quite brilliant, actually. He caught the other groups of you shinobi later on, much in the same way."

"K-Konaha's gone?" asked Hinata blankly.

"This can't be happening, it just can't..." repeated Naruto in a daze. At this point, they weren't even trying to react to what the Kyuubi said. They were just listening.

"I have a few more thing to tell you two, then I'll leave you to do whatever you want. Just listen." demanded the fox "Now, Orochimaru's seal had one major flaw. Though it did extend his life, it weakened his body substantially. His spirit and body weren't able to stay in balance, which basically forced him to the verge of death. He just won't ever go over the edge. As a last resort, that servant of his has to leech off of his residue chakra in order to stay alive and take care of the snakes comatose body. This is where I come in."

The fox shifted positions to where it was standing up "From what I can tell, the only way to balance the problem between Orochimaru's body and spirit would be to introduce youki to his system, and they know it. With me being the only Bijuu remaining, I would be his prime target. Thankfully, they think your dead and that you took me with you. I'm expecting the snake to run out of life energy sometime within the next ten years and die. If I can avoid them for that long, then I'll be free to reclaim my rightful place as King of Demons within the next couple of centuries."

"Is... Is there any way we can go back?" Hinata asked hopefully.

"Nope." chimed the fox.

"Then what do we do?" asked Naruto in desperation. "I still don't understand what your saying... What did you mean by five-hundred years? How do we fix all of this?"

"You don't; Accept it and move on." said the Kyuubi, turning towards the forest "Hell, rebuild your village or something, I don't care. Just lay low for the next ten or so years and you'll be fine."

With that said, the fox disappeared into the darkness, leaving Naruto and Hinata both staring into nothingness.

The two stayed quite for the next three minutes, both thinking over what the fox had just said. Their home was gone, their loved ones all dead, and Orochimaru is to blame.

Hinata was the first to speak. "W-what should we do?" she asked, her voice distant.

"First," said Naruto. His voice unsteady, but determined "we go to Konaha and see if that damn fox was telling the truth. From there though, I have no idea."

"Oh," sighed Hinata. She was hoping Naruto would come up with a flawless plan and save the day, but she resolved herself to be more realistic. _"Naruto is only human."_ she concluded.

(Author's Note: Well, there you have it. The first chapter in five months. Please tell me what you think of it, because I can't improve unless you tell me what I'm doing wrong. I want to be a professional writer, so your only hurting me by not saying anything.

My new story should make an appearance within the next few days and I would like all of you there to usher it in. Thanks All!


	12. Reflections of the Past

Hey guys, I'm back with a fairly quick update. This ones a bit shorter than my last chapter, only a little over 3000 words. There are several reasons why I'm posting this chapter right now. First and foremost, I'm exhausted. I've gotten a majority of the new chapters for my other two stories written, plus, I've been playing make-up with all my college courses. Thats a lot of writing.

Another reason for my update is due to the story line. When you get to the end, you'll see what I mean. I'll explain more down there. (Points to the bottom of the screen)

The last reason has a lot to do with reason number two. I'm completely indecisive on how I want to go about the next few chapters, so until I put myself in a position of no turning back, I can't move forward. And if I wait to long, I'll lose interest and just procrastinate, which was an adding factor in my five month gap.

Anyways, I don't own any of the characters, locations, blah, blah, blah, blahdy, blahdy, blah.

Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 12

Reflections of the Past

It was around noon when the decayed gates of Konoha came into view for the two shinobi. Neither said a word as they walked by the large doors which had come off of their hinges. The Hokage Mountain was so worn by time that the faces were nothing by rough bulges, trees had split the stones that made up walls, and the buildings were sunken far into the ground and jutted out at odd angles.

With nothing more than a nod in the others direction, as if a noise would cause themselves to shatter, the two split directions, each heading off to their own perspective way. As Naruto ran, he saw the locations of his most cherished childhood memories in ruin.

He came to a stop outside the Academy. The tree that once held the small swing was now gone. In its place, were the roots to an enormous tree that stood fifteen meters away and that towered above him.

Venturing into his old classroom, he found half had collapsed in on itself. The desks were little more than random bits of frame sprawled throughout the debris. As hard as he tried to stop it, a tear found its way down his cheek. _"How could we have let this happen?"_

In this very classroom, was the point were he felt his life had truly begun. At this very spot is where Iruka had announced the four members of Team Seven.

In one of the remaining corners of the room, he found the small, crude carvings of himself as Hokage he had engraved in the wall during his countless hours of sitting there due to his various pranks. Iruka had been furious when he had found it, but the scarred man never made him fix the wall.

The Chunin always believed in him, and because of that encouragement, he was able to earn the respect he longed for. But now, his entire life's work was pointless. He knew it was a vain way of thinking, but, much like Gaara, he had always based his entire existence on the reactions of those around him. When they ignored him, he made it his daily goal to be noticed. When they criticized him, he strived to prove them wrong. When they thanked him, he tried his best to truly earn it.

Now though, aside from Hinata, nobody knew or cared who he was. He had felt lonely before; He had felt useless too, but never had he felt as if life was completely hopeless.

"_I can't even give Hinata back her life."_ he thought gloomily. _"Where do we go from here?"_

The sound of heavy footsteps sounded from inside the hallway.

"Why do the girls always get the easy jobs?" said a low, male voice.

"Because," said a second, lighter voice using a deadpanned tone "their women. It's in their nature to push all the hard work on us. If we don't take it, then they don't 'put out'. And the worst part is that they know that we know that."

"Psh." scoffed the first one.

As quickly and quietly as he could, he crept to the top of the rubble pile and hid behind a particularly large piece of fallen ceiling just as the two men turned into the classroom.

Doing what a shinobi does best, he watched and listened.

"Why do the men always get the easy jobs?" asked Kiko, as she climbed down the thick vines that grew up the large, stone gate that surrounded the area. They had been in Konoha from three days now, but had found nothing to take back.

"Because," answered Ako as she dusted off her pants "their men. They do nothing but bitch and complain if we don't give them their way. So, where are we exactly?"

"No ones entirely sure, but I think it used to be a clan house. See how its all the same color?" she pointed out. All of the surrounding buildings were painted different hues of white, but then again, it could just be the effects of time. "And its a big, fenced in area. Konoha was famous for its powerful clans, so it wouldn't be to unbelievable for all of this to belong to one person."

"Ritzy." mumbled Ako in feint astonishment as she scanned the run down area. In the distance, something caught her attention. "Hey Kiko, hand me the binoculars."

"Sure," she said as she handed them to Ako, her attention on an rusted metal tea cup lodged in the ground.

What she saw, made her gasp. About five hundred feet away, sitting on a pile of rubble, was a crying girl. She had her knees pulled up to her chest with her head bent down. "Kiko," she whispered loudly, even though the girl was well out of hearing range. "Kiko look! I think thats Hinata!"

"The blind girl?" she asked disbelievingly "Where?"

"Over there," she pointed while handing over the binoculars "sitting on top of that pile."

"That's impossible." she said as she looked through the goggles "It is..." whispered Kiko in amazement when she focused in on the girl. "What do you think she's doing way out here?"

"Probably doing the same thing she was back when we first found her. I'm wondering how she got here so fast... It took us a day of straight flying and then a five hour car ride."

"Do you think that boy's with her? You know..." she stopped to think "Naruto." she said with a snap of her fingers.

"Most likely..." she said "Should we go up to her?"

"She's one of the prime suspects in a murder case!" exclaimed Kiko "And you want us to walk straight up to her?"

"And you want us to what? Call the cops?" asked Ako sarcastically "If we get to a phone now, the police might be able to get here in time to find what's left of their camp after they pack up and move. Besides, shes crying. What if that boy left her here and she cant find her way out."

"I'm really starting to doubt that she's blind. I mean, she escaped from a hospital, and apparently, assisted in the murder of several thugs."

"The cops said those people were killed by brute force. Look at her and tell me that shes a brute." dared Ako.

"Her boyfriend," countered Kiko "on the other hand, might be. Do we really want to get involved with them?"

"But he might have left her! And she seemed nice enough." Ako reminded her "We can't just leave without finding out."

"Fine, fine, but if I die..." she trailed off, leaving the threat to idle.

"You'll what? Kill me?" smiled Ako. "Now, come on."

"_This is where Hanabi's room was."_ she thought as she sat on the rubble that used to be the bedroom section of the Hyuga compound, tears were running freely down her cheeks.

She had never been very close to her sister, but there had been a bond between them. It was because of Hanabi that she had found the clause that aloud her to pass on the title of heir to a branch member. One night, before she left the Hyuga, Hanabi had knocked on her bedroom door. As far as she could remember, it was the first time her sister had ever ventured into her life for more than just family business.

Xx Flashback xX

Knock, Knock.

Sitting her book face down on the bed, she quickly crossed the room and opened the door. There, stood her twelve year old sister. She was dressed in her sleeping clothes, covered modestly with an off colored, white robe. The girl's usual stoic expression showed hints of exhaustion that ran deeper than physical limits.

"Hanabi?" she asked "What's wrong?"

"Um," the girl started uncomfortably "do you think we could... talk?"

"S-sure." said Hinata, surprised. Hanabi had never confronted her in this fashion.

Quietly, Hanabi walked inside and sat down in the arm chair she kept in the corner.

Taking her seat on her bed, she asked "What did you want to talk about?"

Hanabi said nothing for a long time, the younger girl just stared her feet and fidgeted in her seat.

Content in the silence, she just waited patiently.

Then, Hanabi spoke. "I... I don't think I can do this." she finally said quietly.

"It's fine," she encouraged "just take your time and tell me when your ready."

"No, I mean I can't DO this. I don't want to lead the clan."

"Oh," sighed Hinata. If Hanabi withdrew from the potential heirs, that left only her. Therein layed the problem that both of them seen. "why not?"

"Well," said her sister, somewhat uneasily "there's this boy..."

"A boy?" she gasped. For some reason, the idea of Hanabi noticing boys made her feel somewhat overprotective. The rational side of Hinata told her that it would be hypocritical to tell her sister she was to young, but the protective side wanted to discourage her. "Can I ask who?"

"Well," Hanabi blushed "he's from a suitable family..."

Since the large majority of the notable clans heirs were in her graduating class, there was only one person in Hanabi's age group that would fit her title of 'suitable'. "Konohamaru?" she guessed.

"N-no!" yelled Hanabi with a fierce blush adorning her face. "Defiantly not HIM! Anyways, I don't want to leave the clan, but I don't want to run it, either. The Elders pressure you into following tradition. Meaning I would have to marry into the Hyuga."

Hinata giggled. "I guess it runs in our family." she said slowly, her gaze drifting off.

"What do you mean?" she asked, a defensive tone edging her voice.

"I'm in love with someone, too."

"Really, who?" asked Hanabi quickly, curiosity overcoming her proper shell.

"Naruto." she said simply.

"Uzumaki?" the tone she used degraded him in a way without directly pointing him out. "Why?"

"What do you see in Konohamaru?" Hinata asked quickly, but softly.

"It's not that obnoxious brat..." she quietly said.

"Anyways," interrupted Hinata, her tone changing the mood "do you see the position your putting me in by withdrawing?"

A second ticked by before realization crossed her face. "Oh, one of us has to take the fall."

"Yes..." she said sadly.

The two sat in silence for several more minutes. Then, "No," said Hanabi hopefully.

Hinata just waited for her sister to explain.

"Father was telling me once, during one of our history lessons, that a branch member, directly related by blood to the main branch by less than a generation, was once given the title of heir. But later had it taken away when a new heir was born!"

"Neji?"

"Exactly!" said Hanabi, happier than she had ever seen her as. "But I don't remember what the circumstances were."

"Couldn't you just ask Father?"

"I don't think that would be in the best interests." warned Hanabi "He didn't like the idea of it when he was telling me, so he might try to stop it if he suspects us. And theres a second problem."

"What?"

"I know that it happened when no other heirs were present at the time, but as long as were both alive, then it can't be done."

Glancing at the clock, Hinata asked "Do you think we could find out at the archives?"

And from there, the two sisters spent every night for the next week sorting through scrolls and other various documents in secret, searching for the one instance where a branch member briefly gained the title of heir.

A month later, Hyuga Hanabi had the title taken away, along with her main branch status, Hyuga Neji was named the official heir, and Hinata was house hunting.

Xx End Flashback xX

"_Why did this have to happen?"_ she asked herself.

The sound of rubble moving brought her out of her grief. "Hinata?" asked a female voice.

When she turned around, she saw them. Standing about five meters from her, were the two women she had first met after waking up, Tsukiko and Ako. They were slowly walking towards her, but their movements were cautious.

On reaction, she jumped as far back as she could, giving them an extra three meter berth and crouched into a defensive position.

"WHAT THE HELL?" yelled Ako, unexpectedly.

"How did you just do that?" asked Kiko loudly.

"_I don't think their shinobi?"_ she thought. _"But whatever they are, they're chasing us." _She remained where she was, ready to strike if they showed any hostile movements.

"Calm down," reassured Kiko nervously "Were not going to hurt you."

"W-what do you want?" she asked as she quickly wiped a loose tear from her eye. "Why are you following us?"

"Were not, I promise. We just came across you crying, and thought we could help, thats all."

"Yeah," agreed Ako "we have our own business here."

"What business?" she asked.

"Well," said Ako slowly, looking to Kiko for help. "were not even sure. We were told to come here and not come back until we found something worthwhile..." her explanation was weak, and she knew it.

"So you came here to defile my home." she said, her emotions flaring on the inside. She knew that she wasn't being level-headed enough, but with everything that's been happening, her emotions just weren't cooperating.

"You _live_ here?" asked Ako in astonishment. "I didn't know there was still a free standing building left in this dump."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" asked Kiko, trying to cover for Ako's rude tone. "The buildings around here could fall at anytime, and theres not a soul around to help you if your hurt."

She couldn't help it. She tried to hold back the involuntary gasps and tears, but they surfaced, regardless. She tried to keep her feet stable and her arms held ready to defend, but her muscles started trembling and she felt herself collapse under her own weight. She tried to tell the two women to stay away from her, but all that came out was a muffled, meaningless murmur that did nothing but announce her weakness.

She heard the two women gasp, then, several seconds later, she felt one of their arms wrap around her. "Shh," she heard one of them say, trying to console her. "everything's going to be fine. Just calm down." It was apparently Kiko who was holding her, judging by the voice.

"Why don't you come..." she heard Ako start, but the emotional strain was getting the better of her. She couldn't bring herself to focus on everything that the woman was saying; her only thoughts revolved around her lost loved ones. "...tea and get everything straightened out."

"Hinata? Can you hear us?" she heard the other woman ask "Ako, give me your canteen."

She felt dizzy.

"Drink this." she heard as the world started spinning.

Nothing.

* * *

_**'Kurou, Nobu, stay out!'**_

"What the Hell is all this about?" Kurou asked as he stared at the small piece of paper taped to the front of their main tent.

"I think it means to barge right in there." said Nobu, a hint of sarcasm on the edge of his voice. "But I could be wrong."

"You really think so?" he asked, his voice tainted with a heavily joking tone "'Cause I was thinking-"

But he was cut off when Ako stuck her head out of the tent and made a quick 'shushing' noise, then receded back inside within the blink of an eye.

If only due to surprise, he stayed silent. Seconds later, the short haired woman quietly slipped out. "Could you guys keep it down?" she said in an angry, hushed voice.

"Whats going on?" asked Nobu just as quietly. "Why can't we go in?"

"Because there's a naked girl in there asleep, that's why!" she yelled in her quiet voice. "Now go away, you two are gonna wake her up."

"A naked girl?" "Really?" asked both as they tried to subtitly lean around Ako to somehow peak through the closed tent flaps.

"Yeah," she said as she blocked their view "follow me."

After she lead them a fair distance away from the tent, she came to a stop.

"So let me get this straight," said Nobu "you found a naked girl in the middle of an abandoned, decayed, ancient city?"

"Kind of..." said Ako, understanding how crazy it sounded. "But she's wasn't naked when we found her."

"Really..." asked Kurou, his tone suggestive as he stared off into space. His mind wondering into dangerous territory.

"Not like _THAT_!" screamed Ako as she kicked him in the shin "Pervert." she muttered "Her clothes were drenched from a fever sweat."

"Okay, okay!" yelled Kurou as he hoped and cursed at the same time.

"Is she unconscious?" asked Nobu.

"Yeah." she answered.

"Did you find out anything about her? Who she is, why she's here, anything?"

"Well," said Ako, her tone hinting towards an uncomfortable topic "her name's Hinata." she finally said with a pointing smile.

"Wait!" said Nobu in surprise "As in, 'other excavation site' Hinata?"

"Do you mean," asked Kurou loudly "as in 'wanted murder suspect' Hinata?! 'Cause thats the only Hinata I know of!"

"Well, yeah." said Ako sheepishly. "She was all alone and crying," explained Ako quickly "then we talked to her for a second, she did this crazy ass jump, then she was out. We don't know whats wrong with her. Kiko says it could be emotional. We're thinking maybe she was left here by that Naruto kid."

"That kid could still be around here?" asked Kurou. Something about being in the middle of the forest with a possible psychotic killer didn't sit well with him for some reason.

"Hey," came Kiko's distant voice. "Can one of you bring me some dry towels?! Quick!"

"I think there are some in your pack." Nobu told Kurou. With a grumble, the bigger man stalked off, back to the camp.

"Back to the matter at hand," continued Nobu "Do you think its safe to keep that girl around?"

"It's not like she was acting hostile towards us or anything." lied Ako. The guys wouldn't understand the situation unless they were there, so she decided to leave that little bit of information a secret.

"But what if that boy comes looking for her?" asked Nobu.

"What if he left her?" she countered. "We can't just leave her here."

"What makes you think he left her?"

"You didn't see her," explained Ako "she was completely devastated when we found her. She was just sitting on a pile of rubble, crying her eyes out."

"Well," started Nobu "she's here now. Theres noth-"

But he was interrupted by a loud, male scream.

Exchanging a frightened look, the two started running back to the camp, fearing the worst.

(AN: Well, that's it for the short update. I say it's short, but IS longer than some of my other chapters. Now, as you can probably tell for yourselves, though it'll all lead to the same end point, this can go several different directions in order to get there. I was second guessing myself the whole time wondering if I should try to change this to **that**, or if I change **this** to _this_, then can I get to there from here. That's why I posted. Now, there's no turning back or second guesses.

I have a vague idea of what I'm going to do, but I'd really appreciate some ideas. I'm looking for any big twists or anything, just one of the obvious paths that you guys would prefer I take. Don't be afraid to present me with a challenge though, 'cause that's the kind of thing that keeps this story original!

Please review, and if you'd like a response, please be signed in first. I can't say anything back if I don't know who said it.

_**P.S. - This has not been passed though any beta's. Vami, Timeshift, if you guys by chance see this, for some reason, I can't get any word to you guys.**_


	13. Notice! Not a Chapter

Notice

Hey guys, sorry for the bogus update, but I forgot to tell you that I'm redoing my stories, lol. Right now I'm working on Reflections. I have a nearly completed chapter of Herin in the backseat of my truck, but I keep forgetting to bring it inside with me. I'm a pretty lazy guy, so don't expect me to walk all that way for a simple notebook.

I'll be updating each chapter one at a time, so if you'd like to check back every couple days, you might find a new one there. I'm not changing around the story line or anything, but I'm adding to each chapter and expanding on some of them so that I can get a good ending. Like I said, I started this on a whim so I really didn't have a good idea of what the future of this story would be like.

A good example of how I'm editing it, is that my first redone chapter is, as of right now, 2000 words and still within the first quarter of where the original first chapter was at when it was only five hundred words.

Just so I'm not reported, here is the first bit so that you can compare it to the first chapter:

Chapter 1 (Reposed)

Knock, Knock, Knock.

"What in the..." mumbled Naruto as he stared at his alarm clock.

Five A.M.

Why the Hell was he up at this hour?

A second round of firm, polite knocks echoed though his apartment.

Staggering to his feet, he slipped on the pair of pants that he had lazily threw on his floor the night before. He had developed some form of modesty in the several years since his return, even if his modesty could be used to describe itself.

His apartment, though, hadn't changed to much during all that time. Still painted a light blue, still small, and still barely lived in. The occasional dirty dishes that piled up in the sink and paper covered tables had remained, but since he didn't spend much time indoors, the only parts of the house that he ever used were the parts that were essential for living.

"I'm coming!" he grunted in the doors general direction as he fiddled with the lock.

When the door finally opened, Sakura greeted him with a part sleepy, part friendly "Good morning, Naruto." as she gave a slight waving gesture with her clipboard.

"Oh," said Naruto as he tried to rub some of the sleep from his eyes "Hey, Sakura, what are doing here so early? There's no way Tsunade could be up already."

She gave him a soft smile, though her eyes still stayed downcast, as usual. "Your right," she said with a faint laugh "but its gonna be a chaotic day today, so I'm running around making sure everyone knows to be on time for their appointments."

"I'm guessing that means I'm on that list?" he asked with a comical groan. Anything that might cheer her up nowdays, he tried without hesitation.

"Yep," she said with a slight smile as she glanced over her clipboard. "at ten. Don't be late." she warned as she turned to leave.

"Sakura!" he called to her. When she turned back to look at him, he said quietly, "It's good to see you smiling again."

Her slight smile wavered for a second, before she lost it completely. Having been replaced with an apparent attempt to wipe a tear from her eye. Then, just as quick as it disappeared, the smile was back. "It's..." she started "It's not getting easier." With that said, she was gone.

When Sasuke died, she fell into a deep depression. Sasuke had tried to take revenge on Konoha, and it was her job to defend it. The Uchiha was trying to destroy the leaders of Konoha, not the villagers themselves, so when he refused to take the lives of his former teammates, Madara attacked him. The young Uchiha did manage to take out one of Madara's eyes before his death, which then gave Naruto the final edge he needed to win against the mad man.

That was a over a year ago.

Since then, the title 'Konoha Eleven' became almost as widely feared as the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Though it's not an official rank, much like the Sennin, it was still highly respected. Many believe that with time, they may all pass for Kage level, in one respect or another, though several are still far from that that goal.

Since the death of his father, Chouji had taken up his new role as the Akamichi Clan Head and rumors have spread about a possible relationship between him and Ibiki's second in command, Ino Yamanaka. Shikamaru refused to advance further in rank alongside his two teammates, instead acting as the main ambassador for relations with Suna. He now spends his days casually traveling back and forth between the two villages with the Sand ambassador, Temari.

Rock Lee is now the head of his own ANBU unit, while Kiba now oversees his own Genin team. Shino is currently undergoing a revolutionary, dangerous training experiment to try to increase the bonds between his beetles further than anyone in his family has yet to achieve. The Aburame members have politely refused to disclose any information on the prodigies methods, but since Shino withdrawal from society, the clans overall and individual power has increased significantly.

Hinata surprised nearly everyone when she formally renounced her claim on the Hyuga Heir. Even more surprising, though, was when Hanabi followed her sisters example. Their father, Hiashi, was then forced to give the title to his nephew, Neji. Hiashi, who was not as surprised as everyone would have expected, deemed them free from the clan. Since he had been working with Tsunade to banish the use of the Curse Seal, the two walked away from the clan with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a smile on their faces.

Hinata and Hanabi now live in a small apartment not to far from his.

He himself had also made noticeable progress in achieving his dream of Hokage. To the extent of his knowledge, he was in at least seven standard bingo books across the continent and about ten personal hit lists. Thats usually not something to brag about, but to a shinobi, that was an achievement.

Since Shizune retired from active duty to pursue the quiet life of a mother, cutesy of Iruka, Sakura had taken over as the Sennin's full time assistant. Now that Team 7 was now nothing more than a memory, he was forced him to become a soloist of sorts. Though it wasn't rare to be placed as a stand-in for some other team, he usually found himself sent on single man missions, which was fine with him since he could be, quite literally, a one man army.

Eventually, he found himself back in his bed. Seconds later, he was consumed by sleep.


End file.
